


Guardian Might

by laurenagarret (CrimsonWild)



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-09
Updated: 2015-07-25
Packaged: 2018-03-29 16:51:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 24,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3903691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrimsonWild/pseuds/laurenagarret
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After sacrificing himself to protect Earth, Gohan finds himself on a different path then the one he originally was meant to travel on</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Cost of Arrogance

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings [Entire Story]: Violence, Language, Possible Sexual Situations
> 
> A/N: I've only just got back into the swing of writing after a HUGE absence and I thought that I would kick things off by going back to a long time love of mine.
> 
> For updates checkout: laurenagarret DOT tumblr DOT com

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story was partially inspired by Revu's story ZAT: The Immortal Saiyan. You can find that amazing story here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4921180/1/ZAT-The-Immortal-Saiyan

_**Chapter 1: The Cost of Arrogance** _

It can make or break a man. Gohan knew this. He had watched firsthand how arrogance mixed with pride had caused Vegeta to win and lose battles. He had seen how it had given Vegeta an edge, allowing him to beat some very mighty opponents, yet it always managed to get in the way at crucial moments. Especially when fighting strong adversaries like Frieza and his father, Goku. Each time his arrogance caused his pride to take a hit, Vegeta would come back stronger, for sure, but he was never able to push aside one of his greatest flaws that caused him to loose.  Arrogance.

As Gohan looked up a Cell, he saw the price of his own arrogance. The power he had gained in his ascension was incredible, there was no denying it, but as it flowed through his body, pulsing in his muscles and humming in his ears, it buried itself in his mind. It grew roots that over powered his normal way of thinking, that was so clear and precise even when he was a Super Saiyan. This new power was different, superior. It rearranged the normal, kind, loving thoughts; corrupting them and in some instances replacing them with thoughts of causing pain, torturing someone for hurting his friends and this level of superiority combined with a heavy dose of hatred all added up to create an arrogance that made him believe that Cell wasn’t worthy of touching him, let alone defeating him.

 He had been wrong. So very wrong. And the price of his misuse of power now stood in front of him, gathering all the energy it needed to destroy the Earth and everyone who lived on it.

In a way he was glad that the camera that had been broadcasting the battle wasn't working anymore. He didn't need his mother or friends watching as he royally screwed up. It was bad enough that the friends that were here had to witness this before they were obliterated.

To his right he could sense his father watching him but he didn't dare look over. He didn't want to see the look on his father's face. He didn't want to see the horror, the anger or even the disappointment that was being directed at him. He should have listened to his dad. He should have kept his mind clear like Piccolo had taught him. He should have thought about Vegeta and the price his own arrogance had cots him. The difference between himself and Vegeta, was that the Saiyan Prince always got another chance to overcome it. As things stood now Gohan wasn't going to be lucky enough to have that chance.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see movement. Not from Cell but from his dad. He didn't need to turn his head to know what his father was planning on doing. He know his father well enough that he could guess pretty accurately. His father had a plan. A plan that would most likely result in his death. Gohan’s teeth ground together in frustration. He couldn't let that happen. He wouldn't let that happen.

He had already seen his dad die because of him. He had seen his dad throw himself in dangerous situations countless times because of him. There was no way he was going to put his mother through losing his father again. Not if he could help it.

Clenching his fists, Gohan pushed himself to his feet and walked purposefully towards Cell. As he did, he let his mind wander briefly to the half dozen times he’d seen his father pull off this trick since he’d come home, and the thousand times more Goku had used it to beat him in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. He had asked to learn it himself, only to be shot down by his mother at the last minute. Not because it was a dangerous technique, but because his Mother refused to let him learn something that could allow him to escape his studies. It was bad enough that he could fly!

He could vividly remember the conversation that Piccolo and his father shared early into the three years before the androids, both had been surprised at how fast he was improving in skill. It wasn't until Vegeta, during one of is rare appearances to see how ‘Kakarot’s inferior training was progressing’, interjected why. Saiyans had a natural ability to pick up techniques wherever they went. It was a defence mechanism, a quick way to ensure that young battle inexperienced Saiyans actually made it to adulthood. It was programed in them to watch, learn and reuse the most powerful and deadly techniques that their enemies used against them. It was why Goku has been able to produce a perfect Kamehameha wave the first time – even if it had been much smaller than the one that Master Roshi had used. The hum of energy being built around Cell bought him back, as he glared up at the monster in front of him he hoped that he had enough Saiyan in him for this to work.

Gohan shook his head. It had to work. There was no alternative.

Without a second glance, Gohan shot off a blast towards his friends. It wasn't big enough to hurt anyone seriously, at most the cliff would collapse; but it would distract them long enough for him to begin step two. As the blast hit, sending rock and dust in the air and concealing his moves from those who were watching, Gohan reached out a hand to touch Cell.

 

Behind Gohan his father, mentor and friends all managed to get out the blasts way before it hit the cliff. Goku was momentarily stunned as he jumped out of the range of destruction. What in the world was Gohan thinking? Was he losing it and hallucinating a switch in roles? The dust cleared as Goku looked over at the others seeing the same shocked looks on their faces that mimicked his. Even the pokerfaced Piccolo and stone faced Vegeta seemed shocked at Gohan's actions. It was completely out of character for Gohan. He wouldn't have just decided to attack those he cared for, unless he had a good reason.

Had he seen what Goku was about to do? Piccolo looked at the Saiyan who seemed just as perplexed about Gohan's move as he was. The Namekian frowned, thinking back to before the blast. He couldn't remember sensing a deadly amount of energy. No doubt it would have hurt if any of them had been hit with it, but it hadn’t, which meant that it had been sent towards them for another reason. Could his former student have sensed that Goku was planning on stepping in? He growled. Could that have been it? Was that blast a warning to back off and not interfere? Piccolo crossed his arms. More than likely. The kid had been more than arrogant before and it was more than likely that the kid still thought that he had a chance at defeating cell.

Goku and Piccolo looked at each other. Despite their differences and Goku's general demeanour of nothing phasing him, it looked as if they had come to the same conclusion.

Gohan had been warning them off.

Goku's frown deepened. There was no time for this territorial macho stuff. Things had reached a point where Gohan could not comeback from. The arrogance he had shown earlier had shocked Goku to a point where he almost regretted sending Gohan into fight. Almost. As much as he didn't want to admit it, Gohan was the only one who stood a chance at defeating Cell and he had been the only one to bring Cell to a point where the monster couldn't see any way out other than by turning himself into a bomb. It was amazing that an eleven year old could do that, but it had also proven one of Goku's biggest fears. Gohan was too young to be using this kind of power. If only he had realised that sooner.

 It didn't matter, Goku thoughts as the dust started to settle. He just needed to –

'No!'

Trunks' cry broke through both Goku's and Piccolo's thoughts and they looked out where the time traveller was looking. Gohan stood in front of Cell, left hand raised and slightly touching the energy bloated creature, his right held up in a similar fashion as Goku had had his positioned in before the blast. It didn't take long for them all to realise what was going on and to catch up to Trunks' thinking. The feeling that a bucket of ice water had been dropped on his head flooded Goku and he instantly got himself ready to get to Gohan using Instant Transmission, while Piccolo, Krillin and Trunks all prepared to fly as fast as they could towards the preteen. Before they could lift off the ground, before Goku with lock onto Gohan completely, Gohan and Cell disappeared.

Gohan knew that any amount of increased pressure was going to set Cell off, still as he just barely touched Gero's creation, he placed a shield around the two of them as a precaution. He heard Trunks' scream behind him and knew that if was only a matter of seconds before his Father used the same technique that Gohan was about to use. He wasn't going to let that happen. He felt Piccolo, Krillin and Trunks' ki all increase at the same time as his Father's. Time was running out. If he was going to do this he needed to do this now. With his had held the same way he had seen his Father do multiple times before, Gohan concentrated on where he wanted to go. With a deep breath he glared up at Cell and transported the both of them away from the battlefield.

High above the Earth, Cell and Gohan floated. Gohan could make out the continents below him and had he been in a different situation he would have enjoyed the sight. He was high enough up in the atmosphere that with a shield no damage would be inflicted upon the planet. He let his hands fall to his sides and moved back away from Cell.

 'Do you honestly think this is going to protect the Earth? I can still easily destroy it from up here,' Cell gloated, his smirk looking even more sinister in his bloated form.

'I know,' Gohan said. 'But I've taken that into consideration.'

Cell's smirk disappeared as he gazed down at Gohan. He tried to work out what he had missed. There was no way they were high enough above the Earth for it not to be destroyed by the explosion. What had he missed? What made this child so confident that he was going to protect the Earth? Then something caught his eye. A small flicker of light, no, it wasn't light, it was electricity. Cell's eyes widened almost comically as he realised his mistake. It was impossible. How had this kid managed to do this without him noticing? It was impossible. Every time Cell thought he had the upper hand with this kid he managed to turn the tables around. If this kid wasn't watched over by a Guardian Angel he would be very surprised.

Gohan smirked. He didn't know how he had been able to sneak the shield past Cell, but somehow he had managed to do it and now Cell was realising his fatal mistake.

'I've had enough of this! I'm sick of you hurting people, whether I know them or not,' Gohan said getting into position.

A bright white light started to gather in Gohan's hands as the smirk disappeared from his face and was replaced with a glare, so similar to the one that had graced his father's face when battling enemies like Frieza and Raditz. Cell's eyes widened even more as he processed what Gohan's plan was and he knew that it wasn't going to go in his favour.

'No! Don't! Stop it!'

'I won't! It's time this ended. You wanted to fight and now it's happened. You're reaping the reward of your own actions.' Gohan's glare was like steal, it seemed unbreakable and it caused even more fear to run down Cell's spine.

'Ka-me-ha-me'

Cell tried his last gambit, his last argument against what Gohan was about to do. 'If you do this you'll die too.'

Gohan seemed to deflate slightly and Cell smirked thinking he had gotten through to the boy.

'I know.'

The two words held more meaning then Cell ever thought that two words could hold and for the first time since Gohan stepped foot onto the battlefield, he realised that he wasn't just some ordinary kid. There was something more. This kid had thought everything out right down to the consequences of his actions. He may have been blinded before by his arrogance but now his eyes were seeing 20/20, and that scared Cell more than anything.

'HA!'

The last syllable left his lips and Gohan pushed the blast toward Cell. The moment it touched him he exploded, filling Gohan's line of sight with bright yellow and red light. Cell's scream vibrated around until it could no longer be heard over the explosion. As it washed over Gohan he didn't stop his attack. He kept pushing the energy towards where Cell had been until he could sense nothing left of the monster – not a single cell, not a piece of his ki. Satisfied that Cell was no more, Gohan stopped his Kamehameha and felt the waves of energy hit him for the first time. He suppose that he was past the point of feeling any pain because he could feel nothing, or maybe it was because he knew that he wasn't going to be dead for long. Regardless of how he felt or what he felt, he closed his eyes as his vision left him and said that one thing that had been nagging at him since he realised that he had let his power go to his head, as his body was shrouded by white light.

'Sorry.'

 

Goku stared up at the sky in horror. It wasn't possible. There was no way that Gohan had done what he had done, but search as he might he wasn't able to sense Gohan's ki. But that meant nothing. He could be hiding his ki, or it might be masked by the explosion. The more he looked at the explosion the more the hope that Gohan has made it out alive faded. He could sense that he wasn't the only one who was feeling this way. Beside him Piccolo could do nothing but stare up at the explosion. He knew that his student was at the centre of it, he wasn't going to deceive himself like some of the others were doing but that didn't stop the feeling of complete despair run through him. Krillin was as horror struck as Goku was, Yumcha and Tien were the same. Trunks seemed unable to vocalise his own anguish and Vegeta vocalised his own feelings the only way he knew how.

'An honourable death for a Saiyan warrior.'

Goku fell to his knees as the full impact of what he was witnessing hit him. Gohan. The little boy who he had saved and loved with all his heart, who he had thrown into battle in order to save the Earth, was gone. His son was gone.

He had never felt so helpless. No helpless wasn't the right word. Goku didn't think that there was any word that could be used to describe how he was feeling. Nothing seemed good enough. Nothing seemed to fit. Realisation of how Gohan must have felt when Goku himself had died washed over him and he suddenly found it hard to breathe. The feeling was constricting, pushing on his heart and causing more pain than the heart virus had ever given him. He wanted it to stop, but that felt impossible. He didn't think that the feeling was ever going to leave. Not until he wished Gohan back and was sure that the young boy was ok.

A hand on his shoulder dragged him out of his thoughts and he looked up at Piccolo.

'Goku,' The Namekian said. 'Cell is gone. I can't sense any trace of him. He did it.'

'Hmmm,' Goku said. He didn't trust his voice.

'We need to get going. We don't want to keep Gohan waiting too long,' Krillin sighed. 'Goku?'

Goku stayed where he was on the ground. His legs didn't seem to want to move just at this moment. His heart was still constricting and he couldn't take his eyes off the spot where the explosion had once been. He clenched his fists and forced himself back onto his feet. Krillin was right. They needed to get to the Lookout to make their wish and bring Gohan home.

The trip to the Lookout was short and silent. Everyone seemed to the effected ~~why~~ {by} what they had witnessed and not even Trunks had objected when Krillin had picked up Eighteen so that Dende could heal her. Goku and Vegeta looked at each other once during the whole flight, but neither said anything to the other. Nothing needed to be said. Vegeta's pride was bruised as was Goku's heart, wounds that would take time to heal; but enough was said during that brief glance and Goku knew that Gohan had managed to gain Vegeta's respect – even if it was begrudgingly.

The group landed on the lookout and were greeted by Dende who wore a strange expression on his face; a mixture of happiness and sadness, and expression that Goku didn't think was even possible. They didn't stand around and make idle chit chat, they had more pressing matters at hand. It did not take long for Dende to heal everyone, including Eighteen, and as they watched her fly away, after yelling at Krillin, they knew that she wasn't going to be a threat anymore. The group made their way over to where Dende had the Dragon balls ready and waiting for their return. Moments later the sky darkened and Shenlong, the Eternal Dragon, hovered above them waiting for them to make their wishes.

Krillin was impressed. Not even Kami, the previous Guardian of Earth had had enough power to make Shenlong grant two wishes, but he supposed that that was what happened when you're trained by Nameks.

The first wish wasn’t hard to agree on, the wording of the wish however was difficult. Finding a way to make sure Cell didn’t return with all his victims proved to take some time

'Dende, if we wish everyone back, Gohan should be among them, correct?' Trunks asked.

Dende nodded. 'Yes, he was after all killed in the explosion that Cell created.'

'Then that's our first wish,' Goku said.

Dende nodded and looked up at the Eternal Dragon. 'Oh great Shenlong, we wish that all those that had been killed by Cell to be brought back to life.'

Shenlong's eyes glowed red. 'It shall be done.'

Smile’s seemed contagious as ki's that had disappeared returned to Earth, feeling slightly confused but unharmed. Even Piccolo had a smirk on his face, even Vegeta’s face seemed to relax some. Goku closed his eyes and searched for the most important ki to him and clenched his jaw when he couldn't find Gohan.

'He's not here,' Goku said, opening his eyes and looking around at everyone.

 'Are you sure?' Piccolo asked before starting his own search, only to come to the same conclusion as Goku. The others too were unable to locate the young warrior as well.

'Maybe he didn't come back because of how he died?' Tien said. 'While he was killed by Cell, it could also be said that the Kamehameha might have helped as well.'

'Dende, we need to wish specifically for Gohan,' Krillin said, seeing that they were all in agreement on what to use their second wish for.

Dende looked up at Shenlong again. 'Shenlong, we wish for Gohan Son to be brought back from the otherworld.'

Shenlong's eyes glowed red before quickly dimming. 'This is beyond my power.'

'What?'

'What do you mean?'

'Impossible!'

'How?'

'Hmmmm!'

'No!'

'Shenlong, how are you unable to bring back Gohan Son? He should be in otherworld. Does he not wish to return?'

Goku felt like he was in shock. Did Gohan not want to come back because of his actions? Was his son so angry he’d refuse to return to life? The clenched feeling that had been overpowering his heart seemed to intensify and started to spread throughout his chest.

'The one that you call Gohan Son is beyond my reach.'

'Beyond your reach?' Krillin questioned. 'How is bringing someone back from otherworld beyond your reach?'

'Krillin’, Goku began but was unable to finish before Shenlong started to speak again.

'The one you speak of is no longer in this realm, nor in any other realm in which my powers can be used. He is in a part of the Universe that is too far away for even my powers to reach.


	2. Through the Darkness

_**Chapter 2: Through the Darkness** _

Darkness, that was all Gohan could see. All around him was pitch black; he couldn't make out another soul or building around him. The way his father had described otherworld, Gohan had pictured it differently. His father had said nothing about darkness; only light, hundreds of souls waiting for their turn to be judged and the ogre King Yemma staring down at you as he decided whether or not you would go to Heaven or Hell. His father had mentioned no darkness at all.

As Gohan looked around he realised that he could see his body completely, as if there was a light right about his head, illuminating him for all to see. It was a stark contrast to the darkness that surrounded him. He looked up to see if there was anything above him that was causing the light and was stunned at what he saw – or what he didn't see.

_No halo_.

How was that possible? He died or at the very least he was pretty sure he did. He had no halo so that would suggest that he was alive. One the other hand there was no way in hell that he would have been able to survive the blast that he and Cell had created. One the other, other hand he had no heartbeat, which on its own was a pretty good indication that he was dead. But if he was dead, shouldn't he be in otherworld with King Yemma right now

He shook his head. His thoughts had managed to come full circle with no answers to be found. It was like that trigonometry question that he had been stuck on while travelling to Namek, before Bulma had sat down and helped him.

Perhaps he was in limbo?

Gohan looked around. It was plausible; after all he was only eleven and hadn't really wanted to die in the first place. Could that, plus his regret have caused him to go into a limbo like state? And if he was in limbo, how long would he have to stay here before he moved on? A few years? Until he accepted his death? Until he stopped missing his family and friends? Gohan didn't think that he could do that last one.

As he looked around, Gohan glanced down at his feet and had to do a double take. He wasn't floating. The whole time that he had been here in this strange place he had thought that he had been floating, but he wasn't. His feet were planted squarely on some kind of unseen platform that blended in with the rest of the darkness. It was a little unsettling, Gohan thought, to look down and just see darkness and yet still be standing on a completely flat surface. Carefully, Gohan took a step forward, making sure to keep his other foot securely planted just in case he was on a small platform while preparing himself to fly if the need was there. Whatever Gohan had been expecting to happen didn't happen, but he still made sure that he stayed still, reaching out with his ki to see if anything was going to rush out and grab him. Nothing happened.

The whole situation was making Gohan nervous. He was in a space that had no defined entrance or exit and the more he looked around the more he was sure he was trapped. He had no idea why he was here and even if he did manage to find a way out of this strange place, he had no idea what awaited him on the outside. He suddenly had the urge to call out for his father, but it was quickly silenced. His father was not going to be able to help him like he had done in the past. Neither was Krillin or Piccolo. He was stuck here on his own like when he had first started to train with Piccolo all those years ago. He needed to be able to figure this out on his own. Gohan sighed. He was a smart kid. He was more than a smart kid, if you listened to what his mother said about him. He should be able to figure out how to get out of a place filled with nothing but darkness.

The first thing he needed to workout was whether or not he was in a room or something bigger. If it was a room there was a possibility that he may only have a small amount of space that he needed to search, but it if was bigger than he was going to have a much harder time working out how to get out of this place, not to mention the trouble he was going to have if he was in a place like the Dead Zone. Gohan shuddered. It wasn't impossible to get out of a dimension riff but it took a lot of time and a lot of power, both things Gohan wasn't entirely sure he had. Taking a deep breath Gohan crouched down and pushed himself up into the air, bringing his hands up in a familiar position above his head. A bright yellow light started to gather in his hands illuminating his body more before he brought them down and thrusted them out.

'Masenko HA!'

The blast from the Masenko rocketed across from him and as he watched Gohan was sure that it was just going to keep going and going. Then it came to an abrupt halt and seemed to just hover in place, before doing a complete three sixty degree turn and shot straight back towards Gohan. His eyes widened in surprise before he pushed himself out of the path of his own blast, narrowly missed being hit. He watched it shoot across the other side of the space before hitting the exact same barrier that it had hit before and come shooting back towards Gohan again. This time he was ready and he put his arms out to block the blast and stop it hitting the barrier once more.

It pushed him back a couple of feet before losing its momentum and completely fizzling out. Slowly Gohan lowered his arms, a reflex that he had learnt from the past few years of training and battles that he had been a part of; he knew that there was no one else there, but he couldn't help but be careful. Wherever he was he was stuck here, the barrier proved that, it however didn't answer all the questions that still remained. Like: how was he going to get out of here?

Over his feet, Gohan watched as a light started to grow. Not a light that would come from a growing blast, but like the one that would appear whenever his parents had come to check on him in the middle of the night and the hallway light was on. Looking ahead, Gohan started to look for an open door, but couldn't see anything that could have caused the light to appear on the floor in front of him. There wasn't even an outline of a doorway in front of him. He turned, thinking that if it wasn't in front of him then just possibly he was in a kind of  _Alice in Wonderland_  type place where up is down, and light from doorways doesn't appear in the spot that you would normally think that it would. In every direction that he turned or looked there was nothing to suggest that there was a doorway of any kind.

Gohan gave a long sigh and sat down, crossing his legs, sitting his elbows on my knees and placing his head in his hands. It was disheartening to say the least. This place, wherever it was, was like a box and he was Schroeder's Cat waiting for someone to open it and find out whether or not he was alive or dead. If he was completely honest it wasn't so bad. It wasn't like he was in the darkness that used to scare him, not that that darkness had been all that scary. He could deal with the darkness that used to creep into his bedroom and make everything look like some old grainy movie to his eyes, sending shadows all over his bedroom and making him feel like anything and everything was waiting to jump out and grab him. Well, no one could blame him for feeling that way. He had a track record of being captured and taken away from his parents, so they shouldn't have been all that surprised when he did develop his fear of things lurking in the dark that could take him from them all over again.

He could deal with the darkness, it was the loneliness that Gohan wasn't going to be able to get used to right away, but he had no choice. He just had to wait for someone to be brave enough to throw caution to the wind and actually open the lid. Gohan's eyes slid up until he had no choice but to lean backwards on his hands. His eyes looked all over the "roof" of the box he was in until he saw something.

A small sliver of light poking through the darkness. He looked down where his hands were still bathed in light before looking back up again. If he was in a box, then that would be the lid, Gohan thought climbing to his feet. Light can be magnified depending on the angle that the light is coming through something; he had seen it happen with his own bedroom window enough to know that. And say he was in a strange  _Alice in Wonderland_  type place, then it is entirely possible that what looks small from down here could potentially be bigger up close. He just needed to get up there and have a look.

With a jump, Gohan launched himself into the air and started to make his way towards the light. His hypothesis started to become actual fact as the light started to get bigger the closer he got to it, until he was right next to it. The light was too bright for him to make out what was on the other side, but he could see shadows of figures moving around outside this  _place_. Slowly he lifted his hand out until he came to touch the barrier with his hands. Within a few seconds Gohan realised why his Masenko had been sent back at him, the barrier was almost like rubber, having an elastic type feel to it which would explain why the blast had hit it and ricocheted back at him. It was almost like throwing a rock at a slingshot, only to have the slingshot catch the rock and send it back at you.

Gohan smiled for the first time since arriving in this strange place. He wasn't potentially trapped here. He could get out. He just needed to be able to break through this barrier. It was easier said than done, but Gohan couldn't help but feel excitement bubbling in his stomach. He wouldn't be trapped here for an eternity after all.

The problem he now faced was breaking through the barrier. Any kind of energy blast obviously wasn't going to work on this barrier, it would just be sent hurtling right back at him, and because he wasn't sure if he was alive or dead just yet, he didn't want to risk being hit by a Kamehameha until he knew exactly what was going on. Punching it wasn't going to get him anywhere either. Its elastic like consistency was designed to tire him out before any kind of hand to hand attack could do it any damage.

_The thing with elastic is that it can only be stretched so far before it breaks_ , a voice in his head said. Gohan pressed against the barrier again. His subconscious was right; elastic only had a certain length that it could stretch before reaching its breaking point. If this barrier was created in the same way, then it too had a breaking point that it could be stretched to. Gohan floated down until he was standing flat on the floor of the room again looking directly up at the light. He only had one chance, or at least that is what he figured he had, which meant he needed to hit this barrier as hard as he possibly could so it would reach its breaking point as fast as possible.

Taking a deep breath, Gohan started to gather all the energy that he could. He could feel it flowing through his body building up in his arms and legs. It was a different feeling then when he made a ki blast. They usually felt hot, and made his limbs feel like he had been standing too close to a fire for longer than he should have. This was cold, almost like he had ice sliding all over his body. He didn't know if what he felt was the same as it was for his father or any of his friends, but he had never been able to ask, there had never been time to ask. The cold feeling got colder as he reached that first point where he was about to become a Super Saiyan, and as the change washed over him he looked up and pushed off the floor as hard as he could, sending himself hurtling towards the light.

The closer he got to the light the more aware he became that he didn't have enough power to get through the barrier. The thought that he was going to continue to be trapped in this strange place ran through him and he felt that same snap that he had felt before his ascension. Ice seemed to be running through his veins as the familiar feeling of completely power washed over him and he smirked before pushing himself to go faster towards the barrier. The light grew brighter and brighter, and Gohan lifted his arms to guard his face at the hit the elastic barrier and started to push against it.

The barrier started to bend and the more Gohan pressed against it, the tighter and harder it became. It almost seemed to moulding itself around Gohan's body to the point where he couldn't breathe, and the young Saiyan almost wanted to stop just to make the feeling go away. But something kept him going. He didn't know if it was worry that he was going to be stuck in that darkness alone for what could be eternity or if it was his Saiyan side that was refusing to allow him to give in, but regardless of what it was, Gohan kept pushing against the barrier. The barrier wrapped itself around Gohan's body tighter and tighter, constricting him and making it feel like if he didn't stop he would be stuck in it forever.

With a final scream, Gohan gave an almighty push against the barrier and he felt something rip.

At first he wasn't sure if it was him or the barrier that was ripping until the tight feeling that had been wrapping itself around him gave way and he kept going forward as it slipped over him. Once he felt it slip past his feet Gohan abruptly came to a stop and looked down at the small hole that he had come through. He landed on the ground and stared down at it completely perplexed. The hole could not have been bigger than a key hole and yet he had managed to come out of it his normal size. There was some serious  _Alice in Wonderland_  magic going on here, Gohan thought. There was no sign that he could see that he had just ripped through a barrier and his eyes widened as he realised that the barrier was still up, as if nothing had gone through it at all.

Wherever he was, they had some pretty good tricks.

As he powered down he took in his surroundings. The place looked like one of the glass garden domes at Capsule Corp, except Gohan didn't think that this particular garden was being kept in a glass dome for the same reason. The grass beneath his feel was springy, like the grass around his house back home, while everything looked so fresh and beautiful, like it did after it had rained. Gohan felt his eyes prickle with unleashed tears as he looked around. Everything in this place reminded him of his home; even how beautiful it looked reminded his of his parents. His Mother loved the forest after it had rained and his father, well, his father just generally loved the forest. He wiped the tears away with the back of his hand before gathering himself together. There was still a chance the he could see them. He just needed to get home from wherever  _here_  was, provided he wasn't dead.

The presence of someone behind him caused Gohan to spin around, with a small ki blast in his hand as a precaution. His eyes widened when he saw a young girl standing on a path not ten feet away from him.

'Oh! Hello!'

She wasn't human, that much was for sure, and her appearance reminded him a lot of what his Dad had told him about King Kai. She was a good head or so shorter than him and he was sure that she was around his age, with dark green hair that fell over her shoulder in a very loose braid. Strands of the dark locks were falling out and into her bright blue eyes. Her hair and her eyes were made all the brighter with her pale skin that would have made Chiaotzu seem pale. She was dressed in white boots and a black under-suit, similar to the blue one that Vegeta wore, but instead of the armour, the girl had a pink off the shoulder dress, that seemed to be styled after the same kind of dresses that Gohan's mother wore. Around her wrists were a number of bangles that made so sound at all when she had been walking, and hanging from her ears were a pair of large hoop earrings. It was all a strange combination but somehow the girl managed to pull it off. The girl kept looking at him and it took Gohan a second to realise that she had asked him a question.

'How did you get here?'

'Kind of hard to explain,' Gohan replied, absorbing the ki blast.

'Are you new? Well you must be new, you're still wearing your native planet's clothes, if you were anything but new you would be wearing the trainee's uniform,' she said before stopping. 'Sorry, I'm just shocked that you're here.'

'You didn't bring me here?' Gohan asked confused.

'No! What I meant was that I'm surprised to see you here,' she said gesturing to the room around her. 'Newbies usually come through the entrance and don't find out about this place for a while.'

'Entrance?'

'Yes, usually you come from the void into the entrance once the check in has happened.'

'Check in?'

'You really are new, aren't you,' she said smiling and walking over. 'How did you get here?'

'I came through the barrier.'

Her eyes widened and she came to an abrupt stop.

'You broke through the barrier?'

'Yes?'

'Like pushed your way through it?'

'Yes.'

'Why would you do a thing like that? You would have been collected once all the checks had been done. Didn't anyone tell you that?'

'No.'

'What?' She looked genuinely confused.

'No one told me anything. One minute I was sure that I was going to turn up in otherworld and the next I'm in a room filled with darkness,' Gohan explained.

'Well that's not right,' the girl said frowning. 'You're supposed to have someone come get you and give you the choice. The only time that that is different is when there are exceptional circumstances and someone is pulled here before they die.' She bit her lip, looking him up and down. 'But even so someone should have been waiting for you if they pulled you in.'

'Is that the technical term?' Gohan asked.

'There's a proper explanation for what happens but you normally have that all explained to you once you go through the entrance.' The girl paused and looked around. 'I've never heard of someone breaking through the barrier before.'

'First time for everything, I suppose,' Gohan shrugged and the girl smiled.

'Unfortunately that is where you are wrong, Gohan, for you are not the first to break through that barrier.'

The girl's eyes widened and she turned around slowly, as Gohan stepped to the side to look at the new comer who had managed to sneak up on them.

'I'm terribly sorry that I wasn't here when you arrived, I had planned to be, but you managed to force your way out a lot sooner than I had anticipated.'


	3. The Overseer of Realms

**_Chapter 3: The Overseer of Realms_ **

 

Gohan had never had the pleasure of meeting King Kai, but given the description his father had given him he had come back from Yardrat and all the other information that he had received from Piccolo, Gohan had built up this imagine in his mind of what they looked like. Looking at the  _man_  in front of him, Gohan knew that he was in no way connected to the Kai's, or at least the Kai's that he knew about. 

He was short, around Gohan's height, with dark hair that seemed to shimmer in the light that was coming through the glass roof above them, like stars do at night. Over the top of his hair was a hat, similar to a kippah. His skin was white, with a teal hint to it that was barely noticeable to the human eye and seemed to clash with the bright yellow eyes that peered at him from behind thick, black rimmed, reading glasses. He was dressed in a man’s Kimono that was dark green and black in colour, and embroidered in silver and gold thread. On his feet instead of the traditional zori sandals he wore slipper like shoes, similar to the ballet flats that he sometimes saw Bulma wear, that were intricately decorated with thread and beads to match his Kimono.

'I'm sorry that I wasn't here to greet you Gohan, but I hadn't expected that you would make it out of the void so quickly,' he explained, coming to a stop beside the girl.

'How do you know who I am?' Gohan asked, his body subconsciously moving itself into a defensive position that was almost casual in appearance. He couldn’t pick up anything threatening from the girl, and she genuinely seemed surprised to see this new comer and had done nothing to make him think that she would try to attack him, at least for the most part. This guy was different. He couldn't sense anything threatening from him however something didn't sit right with him about how he knew who he was.

'I know many things about you, Gohan Son. I know that you are the son of Goku - also known as Kakarot to those of the Saiyan race - and Chi-Chi - daughter of the Ox King. You technically hold the title of Prince, but neither of your parents is interested in royal titles and prefer to be known by their birth names, or in your father's case the name that he was given upon his arrival on Earth. I know that you were able to read on your own by the age of four, were doing work that High Schoolers have problems with at age eight and had almost finished your High School diploma when the Cell games started. I know that you don't like to fight, like your father does, but you do so to protect those that you care about; a very admirable quality. Your training does not involve just one style of martial arts, but several including Turtle hermit, demon and Saiyan. But most of all I know that right now you are very confused,' the man said.

'Who are you?' Gohan said.

'I'm terribly sorry. How rude of me not to introduce myself,' he said. 'My name is Az, I'm the Overseer. This young lady,' he motioned to the girl who was standing very still and looking at him with wide eyes, 'is Trixx.'

At the mention of her name, Trixx was shaken from her awestruck imitation of a statue and looked back at Gohan, giving him a small wave.

'Nice to meet you,' she said.

'Hi,' Gohan said slowly, never taking his eyes off Az. 'That doesn't really explain anything.'

'I know. I was hoping to explain all this to you in the entrance,’ Az said. ‘We have things better set up for these things down there for when people arrive, but it wasn't until after you arrived that I realised that you would not be in the void for long before you forced your way out. I had to do a little searching to find a crack that you could use to escape and as you already know I was a little slow to get here, there are so many people here looking for me it is surprising that I get to meet any of the new people when they arrive.'

From the corner of his eye, Gohan saw Trixx look confused and he wondered why.

'Anyway, you're here now and you're safe, that is the main thing, and to make things even better Trixx is here as well,' Az said looking at the green haired girl.

'Better sir?' Trixx questioned.

'Yes, I will explain everything to you both, but for now I think that Gohan needs to change out of his damaged clothes, and we could all do with some refreshments,' Az said. 'If you would both like to follow me, we'll make a short stop to see Lani before having tea.'

Without waiting for Gohan or Trixx to reply, Az turned and started to walk down the path, expecting the two teens to follow him. Trixx didn't skip a beat and was following Az in an instant, leaving Gohan standing by himself, wondering what he should do. He could sense nothing that could be determined as threatening from either Trixx or Az, but he couldn't sense much about them at all and that was what worried him the most. No matter whom it was, Gohan had always been able to sense power levels and whether or not they meant him or anyone else around him any harm. It had proved to be an invaluable tool over the years, but right now it was failing him. Neither Az nor Trixx were giving off any form or ki that he knew how to sense. It was unnerving and he felt like he was going into a situation completely blind, something that instantly put him on defence.  As if sensing Gohan’s apprehension, Az stopped and looked back at Gohan.

'I probably haven't exactly instilled any form of trust in you just yet, but I promise that once you have changed I will explain everything to you. You have my word.'

Gohan wouldn't have normally taken someone's word for anything, especially when he was unable to sense anything from them, but there was something about the way he looked at Gohan that made him want to trust him and believe that this man wanted to do him no harm. All it was, was a gut feeling, but If there was one thing that Piccolo's training had taught him it was that trusting your gut was almost as good as trusting your other senses, and right now all his other senses were telling him that there was nothing threatening about this guy, other than his abundant knowledge of Gohan. His body seemed to make the choice for him, and before he knew what he was doing, he was striding across the garden in the direction that Az and Trixx had walked off in.

The small group walked across the gardens in silence, all three of them enjoying the view that surrounded them, even though Gohan was sure that the other two had seen their surroundings a number of times. If he wasn't so confused and unsure of what was going on, he probably would have taken the time to look around and enjoy everything that is around him. The garden reminded him of the Garden’s that his Grandpa had and pictures that he had seen of the gardens at Buckingham Palace in England. Large trees were placed specifically around the area, with smaller plants that complemented the tree surrounding it. Garden beds were neatly kept and there seemed to be flowers blooming everywhere. It wasn’t all trees, bushes, shrubs and plants; there were vast areas of grass that looked like they had been measured to make sure that each blade was exactly the same size. The effect was something amazing and peaceful that Gohan would have loved to explore had he been on his own.

'This is the Centre Gardens,' the girl, Trixx, said.

'Pardon?' Gohan said looking away from Az who was walking in front of them and turned his attention to her instead. 

'This place that we are in, it's called the Centre Gardens,' Trixx said. 'It holds some of the rarest plants in the whole of reality and no one is allowed in here without The Overseer's permission. To be able to come in here is a great honour.'

'Really,' Gohan said looking around. 

'Yep,' Trixx said, popping the  _P_. 'This is the first time that I have been able to step foot in here.'

'How long have you been here?' 

Trixx bit her lip, looking up at the glass ceiling as she thought that over. 'I don't know the exact dates but I'm pretty sure that I've been here about ten years.'

'Ten years?' Gohan said. 'How old are you?'

'Well it depends. My people don't count years; they count summers, as they are few and far between. The more summers that you have seen the older you are,' Trixx explained. 

'How many have you seen?'

'Three,' Trixx said.

'In Earth years Trixx would be a little older then you Gohan,' Az said from his spot in front of them. 'She was fifteen when she arrived here, the youngest person to be called, before you.'

The way that Az said  _before you_  made Gohan think that maybe Az had made a mistake and he shouldn't have been called here in the first place. However, if that was the case, wouldn't he have sent him straight to otherworld? The list of questions that Gohan had was growing and he was beginning to think that Az was stalling. 

They walked through a large decorative archway and down a long hallway that seemed to have perfect lighting; as if she was reading his mind, Trixx pointed up and Gohan saw that instead of a roof, the glass ceiling from the gardens continued, allowing for natural light to flood in from above them. The hallway was covered in a textured, pale yellow plaster that went from ceiling to floor. At the floor it met a dark wood that seemed to stand out more than the colour on the wall. It gave Gohan the sense that he was walking in an old house in Spain. The hallway wasn't very long and they soon stepped in through a pair of open doors and into a room that belonged to a seamstress. There were miles of fabric around the room, in different colour and patterns. Dress maker dummies were scattered all around, all in various shades of undress and in different styles, some of which Gohan had never seen before in any of the books that he had read. Az came to a stop in the middle of the room and stood on his tip toes to look over the objects that were littered around the room while Trixx walked over to one of the dummies and admired the long flowing gown that adorned it. 

'Lani?' Az called out. 'Lani, my dear, are you home?'

'Overseer?' a high, melodic voice called from the back of the room. 

'Yes. Are you busy?'

'I was just looking for that final something to put on Jeene's dress for her trip home. I know I've got the perfect, small feature piece around here somewhere, I just can't remember where I put it. However, that is not all that important, if there is something that you need,' the voice said, moving towards them.

'I have a young man here that is in need of a new set of clothes,' Az said. 

'A young man? You're not talking about Sai or Kai are you?' the voice said and the owner appeared from behind one of the dummies. 'I swear I will never have those two in this room ever again. I'm still looking for the things that those two trouble makers moved.'

'They didn't tell you where they put everything?' Az asked. 

'No. They were too busy ducking my daggers,' the woman said smiling. 'Hello Trixx.'

'Hey Lani!'

Lani was very beautiful, Gohan thought as she came into their sight. Lani was the most human looking person that Gohan had seen since he had stepped foot out of the void, as Trixx and Az called it.  She stood as tall as Piccolo but that is where the similarities between Lani and his mentor ended. Her eyes were Nordic blue and seemed so bright when compared to how dark her hair was; it wasn't as black as his own, but it was a warm dark brown, set in waves that would have made both his mother and Bulma jealous. She was dressed in an outfit that Gohan had only ever seen in a book once when he was reading about the Tea Houses that Geisha's worked in. Everything, except her hair and makeup, matched the pictures that he had seen and Gohan wondered if maybe Lani was from Earth. 

'Lani, I would like to introduce you to Gohan Son.'

'Hello,' Lani said smiling. 'I didn't realise that you were arriving otherwise I would have had a team uniform ready for you.'

'I didn't know I was coming as well,' Gohan replied, feeling all the tension that had been building up in his body disappear Lani's presence. 

'No one really does,' Lani said. 'Not until they turn up in the void and are told everything. Now I don't have a uniform ready for you, but I do have some clothes that I think will do until I can get the uniform ready for you. While you're here though, I will quickly get your measurements.'

Lani lead Gohan over to a small step stood and got him to stand on it, before positioning him with his legs slightly apart and his arms out and level with his shoulders. Once Lani moved his legs slightly, causing him to blush as she placed a hand on the inside of his thigh and making her wink at him, she grabbed a notebook, placed it on the stool, and snapped her fingers. Out of no-where, two measuring tapes appeared and began to measure his whole body, from the circumference of his head, to how long his legs were. In less than five minutes, the tapes were done and they curled themselves up on the notebook on the stool. Motioning for Gohan to step down, Lani picked up the book and Gohan was shocked to see that his measurements were now written down on a piece of paper that had been blank before. 

Lani didn't seemed phased in the slightest, instead she placed the notebook on an empty table, moved over to a chest of draws and began to go through them, picking out items and placing them neatly on the stool next to her. Once she had everything that she was looking for, she turned on her heal and walked over to Gohan, the clothes she had removed held lightly in her hands. 

'Here we go. If you want to get changed now you can go through those doors over there,' Lani said and pointed to a pair of white doors to their left. 

'Thank you,' Gohan said. 

The change room wasn't any larger than any other change room that Gohan had ever been in, but it did have a small shower and sink in the corner that made Gohan think that he wasn't the first to have been brought here to Lani from the battle field. As he started to undo his sash, he caught his reflection for the first time in a mirror and was able to see why Az had thought to bring him here. Stained with blood, both his and Cell's, his clothes were completely ruined and just barely holding together. As he took them off he saw that he had dried blood all over his skin, along with a layer of dirt that made him look browner then he naturally way. Once he was completely stripped of his clothes, he ducked into the shower to rid himself of the dirt, grime and blood that covered his body. It didn't take long to be rid of it and after he had dried himself he took the chance to look at the clothes that Lani had given him.

Holding them up, Gohan was struck with the familiarity of them. They were the same design as the ones that he had worn on his birthday just a few days before, except the shirt was a deep blue in colour and decorated with detailed gold embroidery. He almost felt bad that he had to put them on; if he had been given these back on Earth, they would have only been taken out for very important occasions. Searching through the whole pile, the blush returned to his cheeks once more when he saw that Lani had included underwear, and it intensified as he pulled them on. As he buttoned up the last of the buttons on his shirt, a soft knock on the door caught his attention. 

'Don't worry about the towel or anything else in there, I'll deal with them later,' Lani said through the door. 

Even with that said, Gohan felt bad leaving everything in a pile on the floor. Striding over to the pile, he had everything neatly folded and placed on a chain within seconds. Opening the door, he found Lani standing next to it, a warm smile on her face. 

'I sent Az and Trixx on ahead, I didn't want them hanging around here just in case you were going to be any longer then you were,' Lani explained. Her eyes darted up to a newly clean cut on his forehead and she reached her hand up to touch it. 'You've been through the wars, haven't you?'

'Something like that,' Gohan sighed. 

'I know this is all confusing. Heaven knows I was just as confused as you were when I arrived here, but it gets better,' Lani said, and nodded towards the door that Gohan had entered through earlier. 'I'll take you to Az and Trixx; they would have everything set up for the three of you by now.' 

Gohan walked along side Lani, back down the same hallway that he had come down only a half hour before, but instead of taking the pathway straight ahead, Lani lead him to the right, taking him around the building and towards a white gazebo that had climbing plants all over it. Az and Trixx were sitting at a table in the centre, talking about something quietly, or Az was talking and Trixx was nodding every so often, when Lani cleared her throat and motioned for Gohan to take a seat at the only empty chair available. Gohan sat down at the table next to Trixx, who looked just as confused about what was going on as he was or at least until a certain point, after all, she knew exactly where they were and quite possibly why he was here. Az was seated across from them and motioned for them to help themselves to the food that was covering most of the table top as Lani picked up a tea pot and started to pour them each a cup of tea. She did with such grace and skill that Gohan wondered if she had been a Geisha before coming here. As if she had read his thoughts, Lani winked at him before turning and walking back down the path away from them.  

'Now that you are a little more clean and refreshed, I think that I owe you both an explanation. More so you, Gohan, then you Trixx, at least for the moment,' Az said gesturing to them both in turn before looking at Gohan. 'I'm sure that you have a number of questions.'

'A number doesn't quite cover it,' Gohan said, picking up his cup and letting his hands soak up the warmth. 

'Of that I have no doubt,' Az replied, cupping his own tea in his hands and leaning back in his chair. 'The best thing for me to do at this point in time is to start at the bottom and work my way to the top. It's longer, but something tells me that you're going to want all the information and not have me skim over anything.' 

Gohan didn't know what to say to that and instead allowed Az to have a couple of minutes to think about where to begin as he sipped his tea. 

'You are aware of course that there are a number of universes that interact with each other where you are from?' Az said looking at Gohan, who nodded in response. 

'Yes, you've got the living word, other world and the word of the Kai's,' Gohan said.

'There are a number of other worlds as well that impact on the living world as well, they're just not as well known, such as alternate worlds, where one problem has two possible solutions and two different worlds are created as a result,' Az explained. 'The worlds that you know about are a small part of a bigger picture. The best way to imagine it is to imagine a sugar cube,' Az leant forward and picked one up from the bowl in front of him and handed it to Gohan. 'To make up a sugar cube you need quite a few sugar crystals that are all compacted together so tightly that if you were to remove one from the outer edge using water you would cause it to collapse. Each sugar crystal is a world and each world is needed to make up the realm in which you live.'

'Ok,' Gohan said, placing the sugar cube down on his plate. 

'The thing is that while this sugar cube realm is important it is not the only one in existence,' Az explained. 

'There is more than one?' Gohan asked. 

'Twelve in total,' Trixx said before Az could get a word out. Az gave Trixx a look and for a moment Gohan wondered if the girl had done something wrong. Trixx realised very quickly that she had done the wrong thing and was waited for Az to comment. However there was no outburst or anything of that matter, Az just seemed to accept what Trixx had done and acknowledge her input with a nod in her direction. 

'Trixx is right, there are a total of twelve realms in total, each one separated by a barrier that prevents the realms from intermingling with each other,' Az said. 'And they are all make out of their own little worlds just like the one that you are from. They however don't stack upon each other like sugar cubes can. They're more like a block tower that has been built by a toddler; parts are over lapping enough so everything doesn't collapse, but not enough that its straight and neat.' 

'Wouldn't that cause everything to go out of balance?' Gohan asked. 

'You would think so but no,' Az said. 'You see while it looks messy it does stay in balance. It needs to. If not, reality as we know it would completely implode upon itself. But every now and then there are members of each realm who believe that by tipping the scales in their favour it will allow them to get what they want, whether it be wealth or power.'

'Which is why Lord Az is here,' Trixx said and Az wrinkled his nose at the mention of  _Lord_. 

'What do you mean?' Gohan asked. 

'Well each realm has a hierarchy of guardians. For example Earth has a Kami,-' Trixx said.

'Or as you know him, Dende,' Az quickly interrupted. 

'-after that the universe is divided into four quadrants which is given to four Kai's-'

'The one that you are most familiar with is King Kai.'

'-After the King Kai's you have the Grand Kai, who looks over them all, and then after the Grand Kai there is the Supreme Kai, who oversees the whole of the realm.' Trixx said.

'The Kai's all have their own jobs which pertain to their level on the totem pole,' Az said, taking over once more. 'They also have certain times when they can intervene and when they are forbidden to, and, as you know, they are known to take on trainees once they have passed on to otherworld. The King Kai's look after those that are in their quadrant, they very rarely dabble with the goings on of another quadrant that is not under their control, unless the event could or does impact upon their own quadrant. Grand Kai is the same and only provides his assistance should it be needed, while the Supreme Kai is very rarely heard from and only dabbles in the matters that would mean the end of his realm or the death of a large percentage of it. The only other Kai that Trixx didn't mention is the Supreme Kai of Time. Her main job is to make sure that no one meddles with certain points of time that could change an already determined future. Other realms have different names to call their hierarchy, but generally they are separated in the same manor.'

'But Trunks was able to come back, he's the reason why my Dad didn't die of a heart virus,' Gohan said. 

'If that is true, then the Supreme Kai of Time would have a good reason to allow him to do so. She obviously believed that what Trunks, was it, was going to do was better for the universe then what had already happened,' Az replied.

'Ok, but that doesn't explain what you do,' Gohan said. 

'I did tell you that this was going to be a long explanation,' Az said, picking up a biscuit. 'While each realm has their own hierarchy they cannot see what is happening in other realms, nor can they stop members from one realm jumping into another.'

'You can do that?' Gohan asked. 

'It's possible.'

'A long time ago it used to happen a lot, but that changed,' Trixx said. 

'Why?' 

'We discovered that allowing Jumpers, as they are called, in go from one realm to another causes the twelve realms to go out of balance. Without that balance there is chaos, and the last time a Jumper used the power, we never nearly lost all twelve realms, plus if I remember correctly a few planets suddenly became uninhabited as a result,' Az said. 'Afterwards it was deemed too risky and all holes in the realms were found and repaired so it wouldn't happen again. When all this was discovered a select number of people from all twelve realms were taken from their homes, twelve to cover all the realms and one extra. The twelve were the strongest in the universe, and the extra was pretty good as well. Their job was to locate talented individuals, regardless of time or realm, bring them here and train them to be a part of something bigger than anyone could have ever conceived. Each team was given a realm to look over and protect. They keep eyes on their realm and jump in when there is a potential jumper or if there is something happening under the nose of the hierarchy that is in place. Most of the time they have no idea that the team is there.' 

He with a delicate movement of his hand, Az rearranged everything on the table before placing a thing, round disk in the centre. He touched a black dot that was located on the edge and from the disk an image was projected up in front of them in hologram form. It looked almost like a stack of unevenly stacked papers, which were spinning around so the three of them could get a view of all the angles. 

'This is a portable version of something that you will see later on, but it allows me to see the movements of the realms at any given time, as well as if any of the teams are on any missions,' Az explained as he sat back in his seat. 

'Wow,' Gohan said. 'Are the realms always moving?'

'Yes, they all don't move in the same direction and they all move at different speeds,' Trixx said smiling. ‘The only time they are ever in complete alignment it during the Centurial Alignment or the Reality Alignment, where all twelve of the realms align and for the briefest amount of time there is complete neutrality between good and evil.’

‘When is that?’ Gohan asked.

'Not for a few years. Now, where were we? Ah, yes. Team Ichi is in charge of the first realm, they are always doing something there as we have been noticing that the hierarchy in that particular realm likes to turn a blind eye on practically anything,' Az said, nodding to the realm that lit up when he started to talk about it. 'Team Ni is in charge of realm two, they're busy like Team Ichi, but mostly that is because there are a number of highly powerful figures that hang around in that realm. Team San is in charge of realm three, Team Yon is in charge of  realm four - which is strangely peaceful for this time of the year - Team Go is in charge of realm five, Team Roku is in charge of realm six - remind me later to tell Team Roku's Commander that I've been picking up some chatter of a potential Jumper - Team Shichi is in charge of realm seven, Team Hachi is in charge of realm eight, Team Kyū is in charge of realm nine, Team Jū is in charge of realm ten, Team Jū-ichi is in charge of realm eleven and Team Jū-ni is in charge of realm twelve. None of these teams work together, and none of them can interfere with something that is happening in another realm,' Az said. 'The twelve that were originally chosen are the Commanders and no one out ranks them, not even another Commander.'

'Except the Overseer,' Trixx said. 

'Which is what you are,' Gohan said. 

'Yes,' Az said. 'I was chosen as the thirteenth person to be the Overseer. My job is to look after all three realms, keep communication open between the teams and send in the Elite if the threat is big enough that it will involve a number of realms at the same time, or of the threat could potentially destroy a realm. There are other things involved as well, but that’s if you break down what I do to its bare essentials.' 

'So there is a thirteenth team?' Gohan asked. 

'The Elite,' Az said, sitting back in his chair once more. 'They are the best that the twelve realms have to offer and they need to be for what they do.'

'What do you mean?' Gohan asked. 

'The Elite are the only team that are allowed from Jump from realm to realm. They are tasked with something much more difficult than the others teams because they have to watch all twelve realms, and not just one,' Az said. 'It's their job to be on top of it all, to keep an eye on potential jumpers, give information to the other teams if they come across it and if an event occurs that effects more than one realm, they are the ones that deal with that event, which happens a lot more then I originally thought it would. They are in charge of taking down the most dangerous of criminals and stop others from damaging the barriers between worlds. They are trained in the harshest of conditions in order to protect and uphold values that they hold dear to their heart. When something happens that the other divisions are unable to handle, then they are sent in. It's their job to make sure that the evil that is haunting one realm does not spill over into another realm.'

'Ok, I'm still having trouble understanding what all this has got to do with me,' Gohan said.

'When a child is born it is written down in a book, regardless of the realm, the species or if they have evil in their heart. They are documented, and this is the way it has been done since the beginning of the twelve realms-' 

'The Book of Souls,' Trixx said quickly.

'Every now and then a person is brought to my attention because they have a great deal of potential. The book lets me know what they are destined to do and from that I can get an idea of whether or not they could be recruited to join one of the teams. The Elites are different however. The book does not give me the power to find Elites. The Elites themselves allow me to find them,' Az explained as if Trixx hadn’t interrupted him at all. 

'How?'

'As Overseer I have the power to I observe the twelve realms and the Book of Souls alerts me to potentials, remember. However those in the Elite grabbed my attention in other ways. Whether it is through their sheer strength or their complete determination to help others-' Az paused and looked over at Trixx who blushed. 'I'm drawn to them and there is usually a point in which I decide that I need to intervene and offer them a position here. You however,' Az pointed at Gohan. 'You were different. I was surprised when Trixx showed up on my radar at five years old. I almost had a heart attack when you appeared right after birth. I thought I was going mad at first, until you were three and you were kidnapped by-'

'Garlic Junior,' Gohan said slowly. 

'Yes. When I saw the power that you had I needed to find out more and went directly to the Book of Souls. You have an amazing amount of power for someone so young. Others who have had the amount of pure power like yours are eventually corrupted, but the pureness and the love of both your mother and father meant that it has been unable to fully take hold of you,' Az said.

'You obviously weren't watching the fight with Cell,' Gohan said. 

'I was,' Az said. 'But you weren't corrupted. You didn't turn evil during that time Gohan. Yes the power went to your head, but you realised where you went wrong and you took responsibility for your actions. Not any adults would be able to do that. However, we're skipping ahead. I knew when you were three that you were too young so I marked you.'

'Marked me?' Gohan said, glancing over at Trixx, who looked just as confused as he was. 

'Not a physical mark. It's a magical one, which allows for us to intervene at the best moment and bring you here. Essentially it’s a small spot on your soul that stops you the moment before you die from going to the otherworld and transports you to the void.'

'And I'd reached that moment,' Gohan said. 

'To be completely honest I wasn't expecting you for another ten years or so,' Az said picking up a chocolate chip cookie and using it to point at Gohan. 'You were supposed go to otherworld, go home, learn to control your powers on Earth and, for a short amount of time, off Earth, but for some reason you were transported here.'

'You didn't do it?' Gohan said. 

'No,' Az said, his face looking completely serious. 'I was told of your arrival seconds after you appeared in the void. I was just as surprised as you are to find out that you were here that I had to go and find out when in your time line you had been transported here. Whatever happened, it happed just before you should have died against Cell.'

'The white light,' Gohan said and Az nodded. 

'A typical side effect of the transportation process that happens when you are brought to the void. The void is the only place that we can bring people from other realms, because you can't transport anyone into this dimension without them becoming seriously harmed,' Az said. 

'So I shouldn't be here?' Gohan said.

'Not yet,' Az said.

'So I could go home?'

'You could but that would involve me having to do something that I have vowed never to do,' Az said. 

'Which is?'

'Kill you,' Trixx said softly. 

'I'm not dead?'

'No,' Az said. 'We transport people here before they die, so they are completely alive.'

'Oh,' Gohan said, looking down into his tea. 

'However, I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth,' Az said. 'There is a reason you were brought here ahead of schedule. Call it fate, call it whatever you want, regardless you are here now and all that means is that I am offering you something that I was going to offer you anyway. Gohan, I would like you to join the Elite.'

Gohan's head snapped up and he looked at Az. 'Me?'

'Yes.'

'Why me?'

'As I said Gohan you have a lot of potential, not just power wise. I had hoped that you would have reached it by the time you came here, however that is not the case and if we were to train you here it would be interesting to see where you could go,' Az explained. 'Then there is the whole business with Cell. Not everyone would have done what you did Gohan in order to save their planet.'

'My Dad was going to.'

'But he didn't, because you realised your mistake and you chose to rectify it by sacrificing yourself. Very few people can claim the same Gohan. It makes me wonder what other good you could do, and not just for the people of Earth,' Az said. 

Gohan looked back down at his tea. 

'If you would like to return to otherworld, I can easily arrange for that to happen and you can come back when things were originally planned. However I do ask that you think about this. While you may not believe that what you did was amazing, I do, and I would believe that you would greatly benefit if you were to accept my offer to stay and join the Elite.'

Gohan felt like he was at war with himself. On one hand he knew that his friends and family would be trying to wish him home right at this very minute and would be unsuccessful if he stayed. Not only that, if he did stay, how long would it be before he was able to see them again. How long would he have to wait to see his Mum and Dad?  _But was he really willing to wait however long to come back again?_ No, he couldn't wait. His body was humming in anticipation and he could feel his Saiyan side growling with happiness at the thought of training and breaking free of the shackles that had held it back for so long. Gohan couldn't deny that he wanted this, that he wanted to learn how to control this power that he had, and to it under the instruction of some of the most powerful beings in the whole of reality, that was something that Gohan couldn't pass up. 

'I'll do it,' Gohan said, looking up at Az and Trixx. 

'Really?' Trixx said. 

'Really,' Gohan said smiling. 

'Excellent,' Az said. 'I am so pleased to hear it. Now we have got part one of this whole discussion out of the way, it is now time to move onto part two.'


	4. The Elite

Az took a sip of his tea before beginning to talk again. His whole demeanour changed in the minutes between and he visually relaxed, and went back to reclining in his chair once again. He placed his cup on the table, entwined his fingers together and looked over at Trixx.

'As I said earlier, Trixx here was the youngest asset that we had obtained before your arrival, Gohan,' Az said, loosening a finger and pointing it at Trixx. 'It was not hard to decide, like with you, that she would be a great help to the defence of the twelve realms, it was just a matter of honing in her skills and developing them to a point that they wouldn't be a danger to her or her team.' 

'Really?' Gohan said looking over at Trixx. 'What can you do?'

Trixx looked at Az, who nodded, before holding out her right hand about a foot off the table. Gohan's eyes didn't leave Trixx until out of the corner of his eye he noticed something moving. He looked at the table, then back at Trixx before looking back at the table again, his eyes wide in amazement. Three feet off the table’s surface were a couple of cups, a few pieces of fruit and the tea pot. Trixx smiled and with a graceful twist of her hand, the objects started to rotate around the tea pot as if they were planets and the tea pot was the sun. 

'Trixx what people on Earth would call telekinetic, with the added ability of being telepathic,' Az explained as the objects all returned to their original place. 'Over the time that she has been here I've seen her fine tune her abilities and become confident with their use.'

'Wow,' Gohan said. 'Those kinds of powers are rare, even on Earth.'

'I know,' Az said grinning. 'She is very special. There used to be a lot of individuals who had the same abilities, or just one of them, however these days they are thinning out and there is only a handful left.'

'It's no big deal,' Trixx said, laying her hands in her lap. 

'It is,' Gohan said. 'I've never really seen someone who could do that before. One of my Dad's friends had the ability, or so I was told, but I never really got to see him use it first-hand.'

'That would be Chiaotzu; the small, child like one who looks like a clown, I believe that they are called,' Az said. 

'Not a clown. A vampire yes, but not a clown,' Gohan said. 

'People on Earth have a number of mythical creatures that all seem to look the same,' Az said. 

'I suppose that is right,' Gohan said, a number of similar creatures popping into his head. 'I suppose that just shows how similar the human race thinks, or that someone heard the story and decided to copy it - like the Romans did to the Greeks.'

'I don't see how mythical creatures have anything to do with small child like people who have the same abilities as me,' Trixx said, looking genuinely confused for the second time that day. 

'Once again we are off topic.' He paused. 'I didn't ask for you to meet me by accident Trixx. When I heard that Gohan had arrive I knew that there was a chance that I may need backup. Not the attacking kind, but the kind that would help put him at ease; you know what it's like to suddenly arrive here and have no idea where you are or what happened. I knew that Gohan could possibly need someone around his age that would help put his at ease, but that was not the only reason why I asked for you to join me. Gohan is not the only one that has been surprising me recently. You have as well.'

'Me?' Trixx said, not at all convinced. 'How? Me?'

'When I get someone brought here I don't just dump them and leave them to progress on their own. I keep a watchful eye on all my charges,' Az said. 'You've been coming leaps and bounds with your abilities, even finishing your training before we thought you would. Originally I thought that you would be a good fit to go and help out Team Roku in realm six, but I've reconsidered.'

'I'm not joining a team now?' Trixx asked. Gohan looked over at her and saw tears welling up in her eyes. Her hands were clenching and unclenching on her lap and everything about the way that she was sitting was giving off how upset she was. 

'You'll be joining a team, just not the team that I originally was going to put you on. Mitz agrees that while you would have been a great addition to Team Roku your powers and the way that they are growing would be better suited for a team that is much more hands on and a little in need of your abilities. This is why I have decided that you will be joining Gohan in his training to become an Elite.'

Trixx's face went completely blank, there was no sign of emotion at all and for a second Gohan thought that she had gone into a paralysed state after being told that she wasn't going to join the team that she was originally brought here to join. Her eyes blinked rapidly for a few seconds before her face broke out in the biggest grin that Gohan had ever seen. She leant forward in her chair. 

'So I'm just joining a different team? I'm joining the Elite?'

'Precisely,' Az said smiling. 

'But when you came and got me ten years ago you said that once you are picked for a team you can't be swapped.'

'You are forgetting child, that while you may have lived for over a hundred years, you are still a child, while I am an adult and the overseer which means that I can change the rules however I see fit. It's an adult’s prerogative to do so,' Az said. 

'A hundred years?' Gohan said. 'I thought that you said that Trixx is only a little older than me?'

'By her race's standards she is only thirteen years old,' Az said

'This is incredible,' Trixx said. 'When do we start?'

'Hopefully today,' Az said. 'Lani is no doubt getting your uniforms together-'

'She knew?'

'She is Lani; she knows these types of decisions before even I do. But even she, it seems, was stumped by the arrival of Gohan,' Az said. 

'Or she played you,' Trixx said.

'Or she played me,' Az said, looking as if he was definitely thinking over the possibility. He fell silent for a few seconds, pondering whether or not he had been played before continuing on. 'Once you have your uniforms, I'll be taking you both over to the Elite compound and introduce you to your new team members.'

'Will we begin training today?'

'I believe that Mount will want to assess the both of you and get a feel of your strengths and weaknesses before any training happens,' Az explained. 

'Then we'll begin?'

'You'll probably officially begin tomorrow,' Az said. 'Now Gohan, have your ever tried Pervian Jelly Cakes? They are very good.'

For the next half an hour or so the three ate and talked or to be more accurate all three ate while Az talked about his time exploring the crystal planets in realm four. Once their appetites had been sated, the three of them made the trek back to Lani, who presented them with two different bags and pointed them in the direction of the changes rooms once more. This change didn't take as long as the first for Gohan and once he was fully dressed he assessed himself in the mirror.

His boots were red, slightly heavy, and came up to his mid shins, where the bottom part of his pants was tucked in. The pants were baggy, like the legs of the purple training gi that Piccolo had first given him just before Vegeta first arrived on Earth, except they were white. Tucked into his pants was a long sleeved, high necked shirt in a light blue, while over the top of that was a shorter sleeved jacket that buttoned to the right and had red edging and was longer at the back, falling to his knees. Around his waist was an orange obi that, even after wrapping it around his waist a couple of times, hung down just past his crotch. As Gohan took it all in he noticed that there was a big of weight in the clothes as well and he made sure to mention it as he walked out of the change room. 

'All the uniforms, even those of the twelve other teams, are weighted,' Lani explained. 'It allows for the wearer to continue gaining strength, even if they aren't training. They have been made so that as you get used to the weight, they adjust and increase.

'Amazing,' Gohan said. 'I don't think that even Piccolo would be able to make something like this.'

'Doubtful, Lani is one of a kind,' Az said, causing a light blush to dust Lani's cheeks. 

Gohan turned around to look at Trixx as she exited her change room and saw that while he uniform help the same colour scheme as his, hers was tailored to fit her body better.

'These are just your trainee uniforms. Once you get through your training and are officially made an Elite, Lani will make something that is better suited to what you are used to,' Az explained. 

'However if you damage this one or grow out of it, please feel free to come and see me anytime. And I don't just mean for clothing related matters either,' Lani said. 'It has been a while since we've had new guardians, so it's nice to have you visit every once and a while, especially as I don't get out as much as I would like.'

'Ok,' Gohan said. 'Thanks for your help.'

'You're welcome,' Lani said. 

The group didn't wait around for long, walking out the door soon after Trixx said her own thank you's. Leaving her to finish her work, Lani watched the Trio walk out the door before picking up Gohan's old gi and holding it up in front of her. 

'I might need to hold onto you. Something tells me that I'm going to need you later on for inspiration,' Lani said to herself before folding the garment and placing it carefully in a draw. 

Instead of heading out toward the gardens once more, Az led the two teens in a new direction further down the hallway. Trixx seemed completely at a loss for words, still reeling from what Az had told her, and Gohan could definitely sympathize with her. He had no idea how much time had passed, but it felt like everything had been dumped on him in a short amount of time with no room for breathing. 

The hallway was long and seems to snake its way around the grounds with numerous pathways that lead to other parts of the compound. Gohan would peer down each one trying to catch a glimpse of what was down the end one to discover that there was no end to the hallways in sight, and they themselves just continued on and on. When Az finally changed direction it happened so fast that Gohan nearly missed it and had to jog a couple of paces to catch back up with the Overseer. 

'This is the Elite compound,' Az said. 'Don't worry about getting lost. For the next couple of weeks you'll only be going from your rooms, to the training fields, to the lunch room and back to your rooms. Mount and his team will be running you pretty ragged until they can gage where you stand.'

'What about afterwards?' Gohan asked. 

'You'll figure that out when the time comes,' Az said, and Gohan could almost hear the grin that he had all over his face. 

'Don't worry,' Trixx said. 'Chances are the two of us will be together a lot. I'll show you around.'

'Thanks.'

Trixx smiled in return and then looked ahead at the giant doors that they were walking towards. 

'Where do those doors go?' Gohan asked. 

'That's the portal room. When teams are sent off on their missions they go through there. It's the only way for someone to get to and from different realities,' Trixx explained.

'No one has the power to do it themselves?' Gohan asked. 

'Beings can gain the power, but it's always gained down dark paths,' Az explained. 

'Oh,' Gohan said. 'So it can't be a natural ability.'

'There was once a group who could do it, however they have all died out and the knowledge that they had died with them. I had hoped that we would be able to find one who would be willing to impart the knowledge to us but they all refused to do so, stating that it was a sacred power and only those with the gift are allowed to know how to use it,' Az said. 'So now the portal room is the only way for Guardians to get to and from different realms. Anyway, you both don't need to worry about the Portal room for now, but it is handy to know where it is. Follow me.'

They turned left and continued walking until they came to a large archway the opened up onto a large glass dome. The ground underneath Gohan's boots was hard and clay like, but it changed into grass to the left and sand further on. Following Az, the two pre-teens took everything around them in, from the range of training bots that lay unused to the far right all the way over to the large platform that reminded Gohan of the one that Cell built for his games. 

Ahead they saw the figures of seven people all doing a different form of training. A couple were sparing with swords, a couple more were shadow fighting, out of the corner of his eye Gohan spotted two figures jogging as a steady pace back and forth, one was sitting motionless in meditation, while large man stood overseeing the lot as he cleaned he sword. The man gazed at his sword, checking to see if he had missed anything before catching the three figures walking towards him. He quickly sheathed the large weapon and climbed to his feet.

'My Lord,' a loud booming voice called, causing the others to stop what they were doing and form a line. Even the one that had been meditating. 

'Mount, I hope that we haven't interrupted anything,' Az said, nodding at the large man. 

'No, my Lord,' Mount said. 'Just getting in our daily training.'

'Good, good,' Az said. 'I have brought you a couple of people that I would like you to meet.'

Mount's thick eyebrows raised slightly and looked at the two pre-teens, already guessing where Az was going. The girl gave him a short smile, disappearing almost as fast as it appeared on her face, but the boy looked him dead in the eyes, as if trying to figure out if Mount was friend or foe. 

'This is Trixx, I believe that Mitz has mentioned her to you,' Az said and Mount nodded, recalling the conversation that he had had Team Roku's leader. 'This young man is Gohan. He surprisingly arrived today.'

This caught the Elite team's interest. No one had surprised the Overseer in over a millennium so for a young boy to do it, it definitely interested them.  

'They are both here to begin their training,' Az said.

There was silence for a couple of minutes as Mount looked over the two kids. He knew about Trixx, Mitz had been discussing her with him for a number of years, wondering if she would be better off with a team that would get better use of her and her abilities as they continued to grow. Mitz had gotten the courage up to talk with Az a month before and it didn't come as a surprise to him that Az was going to allow her to train with the Elite. The boy on the other hand. He was an enigma that seemed to radiate power. 

He glanced over at his second in command who had not taken his eyes off Gohan. Zean was a good judge of who would be able to make it and who wouldn't, and it only took a small inclination of Zean's head for Mount to know everything that he needed to know in that moment.

'Welcome, both of you,' Mount said.

'Thank you,' Gohan said. Mount was an impressive man. Standing as tall as his Grandfather, the Ox King, he didn't have the same bulk but looked to be made up of bone and hard muscle. His skin was a dark red and made him look like he had a bad sunburn, from his head sprouted two large horns and moving ever so slightly behind him was a long pointed tail. 

'Yes thank you,' Trixx said. 

'I leave the two of them in your hands,' Az said. 'Work hard, Gohan and Trixx. I look forward to seeing how you progress.' 

With a nod toward the Elite, the Overseer turned and walked back out of the training grounds. 

'Trixx. Gohan,' Mount said turning their attention back to him. 'I would like to introduce you to your team mates. My name is Mount, I'm the Commander of the Elite.' He then began to motion to each team member in turn.

'This is Zean, my second in command. You are to report to him when I am not around.' Zean was such a dark green, he almost look black. Tall and thin, he only wore a pair of white training pants and boots which showed off a set of white tribal tattoos that decorated his whole torso and arms.

'Next to him is Sergi.' Yellow, broad shouldered and reminding Gohan of his Grandfather in both height and width, Sergi was a menacing looking man who didn't look like he knew how to smile. 

'Lynial.' Short, with dark eyes and bright blonde hair, Lynial was a pinup dream looking like she should belong in a movie alongside Marilyn Monroe. 

'Jeene.' From the back Gohan was sure that Jeene would have been a double for his mother, except that was where the similarities end. Jeene's face held a number of piercings and tattoos that drew you in instead of make you want to walk on the other side of the road. 

'And Sai and Kai,' Sai and Sai were blue skinned, mohawked duplicates of each other who couldn't stop grinning and waving at the two pre-teens. 

'Welcome to the Elite. You're not officially members just yet, however with a lot of work I have no doubt that you will be,' Mount said. 'Lord Az would not have sent you here if he did not think that you would be able to do it.'

Gohan looked at each member and could feel himself being sized up, even by the twins. When he looked back at Mount he noticed a strange sparkle in the man's eyes and Gohan knew what that sparkle meant. 

'Now that introductions are out of the way, let’s begin.'


	5. Lessons

After Mount had declared that they were going to begin he had sent Trixx off with Sai, Kai and Zean to gage where she stood, before turning to Gohan with a glint in his eyes. Gohan had seen that glint a number of times in Piccolo or his Dad's eyes during training and it usually always resulted in a lot of double teaming and Gohan being sent face first into the ground below. 

He knew that this wasn’t going to end all that well and he had been mostly correct.

‘I’m sure that Az has informed you that you’re going to be tested over the next couple of weeks,’ Mount said, leading the way over to the platform.

‘He may have mentioned something,’ Gohan said.

‘In order for us to understand where you stand in relation to form and abilities we need to be able to see you perform. Unlike Az, we don’t have the luxury of watching potential team members whenever we like so it is somewhat tradition to have a tournament of sorts,’ Mount explained.

‘Great, I go from one battle to another,’ Gohan muttered. Behind him he heard Lynial snort.

‘Lynial has exceptionally good hearing,’ Mount explained. ‘One of the natural abilities that come with her species. So you’ll have to be exceptionally quiet if you want to try and get anything past her.’

Looking over his shoulder at Lynial he wondered what abilities the others in the Elite had. Mount lead Gohan up onto the platform and they came to stop at the centre.

‘This is what is going to happen. One by one each member of the Elite is going to come up here and battle against you until either you or they are knocked off the podium. If you knock them off then you continue to battle, if they knock you off then everything finishes and we can move onto the next stage,’ Mount explained.

‘Easy enough,’ Gohan said.

‘Good luck,’ Mount said and then nodded to the other member of the Elite that were waiting off the platform. As Mount stepped off, Lynial stepped on and positioned herself opposite Gohan.

‘So you have excellent hearing, anything else I should know about?’ Gohan asked.

‘You’ll just have to wait and see,’ Lynial said with a wink.

A loud booming clap shattered the air and Lynial dashed towards him fast. Gohan had enough time to exhale before Lynial was feet away and swinging and he was dodging her attack. Punch, block, kick, block, dodge, dodge, block. Lynial was fast and efficient, learning quickly from every move that Gohan made and then moving faster to try and back him off the platform. Gohan moved just as fast, sometimes even faster to the point that from the sidelines it almost looked as if the two of them were engaged in some kind of dance. With every movement that Gohan made, Lynial countered with one that would throw Gohan off for less than a second before he came back faster and stronger.

From the corner of his eye he could make out the shapes of the other Elite members who were watching, but he couldn’t gage where he stood in their eyes. None of them were giving off any kind of sign through body language that they were impressed and Gohan didn’t know whether to be annoyed or disappointed. He shook his head. He couldn’t allow for his arrogance to get in the middle of a fight again. That’s what started this in the first place.

A deep growl vibrated in his throat and it shocked Lynial long enough to give Gohan the advantage that he needed to send her flying across the platform and onto the grass below.

There was no time to celebrate the win.

Sergi was next onto the platform, looking as stone face and irritated as Vegeta. The clap vibrated through the air once more and Sergi flew towards him. As big as Sergi was, the large man was quick and as equally strong. He instantly grabbed Gohan around the middle and started to head towards the other end of the platform, with every intent to just drop the demi Saiyan onto the grass below. The grip the older man had on the pre-teen was enough that Gohan was unable to get loose. Any blows that he dealt did nothing to phase him and he looked over his shoulder as Sergi lifted him above his head and sent him hurtling towards the ground.

He fell hard and fast, and was prepared to hit the ground when his body instantly reacted and he stopped falling three inches above the grass. From his horizontal position, Gohan looked up at Sergi, who stared back down at him in astonishment.

Gohan smirked.

With a yell, he shot up and grabbed the much larger man in a figure four choke hold, holding it long enough for him to feel Sergi’s legs begin to give out before giving him a hard kick to the back and sending him flying down onto the grass below.

The air behind him changed and Gohan moved a fraction of a second before a long glowing sword appeared where his head was. He spun around and looked at Jeene, who was smirking.

‘Impressive, I haven’t seen someone surprise Sergi like that for over two hundred years,’ Jeene said.

‘Bound to happen sometime,’ Gohan replied.

‘True, but it’s going to hurt his pride to know that it was a kid who did it,’ Jeene said before launching herself at Gohan, the sword raised high above her and coming down towards Gohan fast and deadly.

In the seconds before he dodged the second attack, Gohan’s eyes widened when he realised that what Jeene was holding wasn’t a sword at all but ki that had been shaped into the form of a weapon. He grinned slightly and made a note to ask her how she did it before blocking the a kick that she had aimed at his head and bringing his free arm down onto her hand, shattering her grip on the weapon and letting it fizzle out of existence.

Shaking her hand, Jeene attacked with an onslaught of attacks, trying to find a weakness that she could exploit while Gohan dodged and blocked waiting for his moment to launch into his own offence. When the moment came he ducked under one of her punches, causing Jeene to become unbalanced, before hitting her back dead centre and sending her flying into one of the pillars the lined the outside of the platform.

A kick to the back of Gohan’s knees sent him kneeling to the ground before a hand gripped the back of his neck and his vision started to go blurry, and he fell face forward onto the platform.

When he came to he was staring up at the ceiling and both Trixx and Mount were kneeling next to him. With a wince, Gohan pushed himself up into a sitting position before holding his head in his hands as the world started spin.

‘Easy,’ Mount said. ‘You’re going to be dizzy for a couple of minutes.’

‘What happened?’

‘Zean happened,’ Trixx said nodding toward where the dark green man was leaning against one of the pillars, his arms crossed across his chest.

‘He’d been watching the test and wanted to see how you would fair against him,’ Mount explained. ‘He did however have an unfair advantage as he was supposed to be with Trixx.’

‘You always need to be prepared for the unexpected,’ Zean said looking at Gohan. ‘You’re good kid, but you need to be more prepared to be assaulted at any given moment.’

‘Thanks for the lesson,’ Gohan groaned and got a smirk in response.

Pushing off the ground, Gohan climbed to his feet which earned him a cocked eyebrow from Zean and a couple of murmurs from the others.

‘Impressive kid,’ one of the twins (Sai, Gohan guessed) said.

‘Not many can shake off Zean’s suction like that,’ the other finished.

‘Suction?’

‘It’s what they call Zean’s ability to collect the energy of others. It weakens the suckee and increases Zean’s power for a short period of time,’ Lynial explained. ‘He doesn’t normally use it in training so I guess you could say that he must think high of you if he was willing to use it against you.’

‘Or he just wanted to knock the kid down fast,’ Sergi replied, rubbing the back of his head.

‘Are you ok?’ Gohan asked. ‘I kind of threw you down hard.’

Sergi let out a thunderous laugh. ‘Kid, it’ll take more than you to properly hurt me. You did however get pretty damn close.’

‘So what’s the verdict Mount?’ Sai asked.

‘We knew that Trixx was going to be a good addition, what you three,’ Mount indicated to Sai, Kai and Zean, ‘witnessed with her proves that. Gohan on the other hand, you’re a surprise.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Gohan asked. ‘Zean won.’

‘You got past Lynial, Sergi and Jeene before that. Not even the twins were able to get past Sergi and they cheated and worked together,’ Mount said.

‘We did not cheat!’ Kai said.

‘There was nothing in the rule that you dictated before the fight to indicate that we weren’t allowed to work together,’ Sai said.

‘Which is why the rules need to be updated so little dunder heads like those two don’t abuse them,’ Jeene said causing Lynial to giggle.

‘You have things that you need to improve on, but I’m impressed,’ Mount said.

‘He passed?’ Trixx asked.

‘You both did. Welcome to the team,’ Mount said.

‘It’s about to get a whole lot worse from here on in,’ Zean said.

Zean was not exaggerating. Training with his Dad and Piccolo did not compare to the training that Gohan found himself doing with the Elite. Each day was hard and gruelling, and always ended with Gohan collapsing into bed each night and falling instantly asleep, only to wake up the next morning and repeating the whole process once more.

Days started early with meditation, which was made harder by Sai and Kai trying their best to make everyone laugh by switching the music that played in the meditation room to their own creation. More than once Gohan had been on the edge of being fully entrenched when suddenly Sai and Kai’s own recording of walking through a forest and being attacked by men from Mars would start to play. It was amusing right up until the point when Mount would assign them extra duties for the week to try and teach them a lesson. It would never work and the twins would soon be back to their old tricks once more. Once meditation was finished, the group would have breakfast before heading out to the training fields to begin their exercises and to spar. Lunch would happened around noon (or at least Gohan believed that it was noon) and afterwards the team would return to the training field for drills. The days always ended with dinner, chatter and a shower before they separated to relax in their own private spaces before bed.

As the days passed, Gohan learnt more about his team members and started to enjoy himself more. He laughed with Trixx, pranked occasionally with Sai and Kai, and enjoyed sparing with the diverse team. It didn’t take long to learn that each member of the team had different abilities that made them an asset to the team.

Mount, the Commander, was strong (not as strong as Sergi) and fast. He delighted in battle and loved staying just out of arms range in a spar and would wait until you were sure you were going to connect a hit only to be twisted around and slammed into the ground. Gohan didn’t know how he did it, but he always managed to slam the demi Saiyan into the ground, round after round, despite Gohan knowing the trick. As much as the larger man delighted in battle, he was also an amazing teacher. Each time Mount would slam him into the ground; he would then help the pre-teen to his feet and show him where he had gone wrong, allowing Gohan to learn from his mistakes and improving for the next spar against the Commander.

Zean, the second in command, was cool and distant. Strategic, Gohan learnt early on that Zean would often be watching him out of the corner of his eye and then use that he had observed against him when they sparred. Like Mount, he had yet to win, but he did learn quickly never to let the dark skinned man time to get a good hold on any part of exposed skin. It always ended in darkness. To compliment his strategic mind, Zean was also a master swords man, often preferring to use a double bladed weapon instead of engaging in hand to hand combat. Outside of training, Zean was very much like Piccolo, preferring his own company and only talking when the need was there. Gohan would often catch the man studying each team member while deep in thought, and couldn’t understand why. When he mentioned it to Mount, Mount smiled and said that Zean was just like that; always trying to figure out how to better himself and like to keep his mind sharp by devising new strategic plays in his mind for future spars against his team mates.

Sergi was stronger than any man that Gohan had ever come up against, and would often steam train into you to try and wind you during spars. But as ferocious as he was in battle, off the training field Gohan found the older man to be something of a mother hen towards the team, and especially towards Gohan and Trixx. The large man would often refill their plates if he didn’t think that they had eaten enough, and come past their rooms late at night to make sure that they were asleep at a decent hour. If someone was injured, he was the first one there with the medical kit ready to treat any injury.

Lynial, as beautiful as she was, was deadly, Gohan learnt very quickly. Trained from a young age as an assassin, Lynial had turned over a new leaf when she had been ordered to kill the children of a King who was not doing as her bosses required. Refusing to have the lives of children on her conscious, she switched sides and instead started to help those who were too weak to help themselves. When Gohan told her that her story sounded similar to that of a comic book Character back home, Lynial smiled and said she was glad that people on Earth were reading stories that could teach them that people can change regardless of how they were brought up.

Jeene thrived under stressful situations, her blows becoming harder and more deadly the more stress that she was put under. Her use of her sword in combat was unusual for Gohan to witness and defend against, as it was something that he had never come up against or had even heard about. She had been easy to befriend for Gohan and delighted that he had been interested in her sword, agreeing immediately to teach him how to create an energy sword if he was that interested in it.

Sai and Kai had been the easiest to befriend, both impressed with how he had performed in the trails and the closest to him in age after Trixx. From the outside they seemed like very skilled hand-to-hand fighters, but it was their other skills that cause Gohan to be the most impress. They held a mind bond that allowed them to coordinate their attacks telepathically, and when they weren’t doing that they were able to both manipulate your mind to see things that weren’t actually there, or to disorientate you. That combined with their hand-to-hand skills made them an interesting combination that preferred to work as a team instead of separately.

Then finally there was Trixx. It took a couple of days before Gohan had a break in his own training to witness what Trixx as able to do. Her telekinetic abilities dwarfed those of Chiaotzu, moving and defending herself against attacks with easy and comfort that showed Gohan just how much training she had put in to master her powers. She could at time have a fiery temper and the twins learnt that quickly when they pushed her too far and they were sent flying into one of the platforms pillars repetitively until Mount asked her to stop before their brains bounced out of their heads. Her telepathic skills were not as developed if you compared her to the twins. While she was able to connect the team mentally so they could plan their movements, she wasn’t able to conjure the same illusions as the twins were which frustrated her greatly. Wherever it would happen, the air next to her would ripple slightly and cause Mount to frown as he tried to figure out the best way to help her.

Days and weeks passed in this manor with no external disruptions to routine. When Gohan commented on it, wondering when they were going to be called out Sergi told him to enjoy the downtime.

‘Right now it’s peaceful, which means that the other teams are able to control everything. When we do get called in it’s going to go downhill fast as we try to stop whatever bastard or bastette that is trying to disrupt the balance that is out there.’

Gohan knew he was right. His Dad had told him something similar leading up to the Andriods arrival, but even so it didn’t make him feel any less uncertain.

Weeks passed into months and after a particularly hard day Gohan collapsed back onto his bed, every inch of his body protesting as it hit the mattress. His body hurt in more ways than he even thought was humanly possible. His muscles protested movement, his brain protested thinking, his ki kept fluctuating and he was sure that if he tried to do any kind of mediation it was just going to end badly for him. 

Az had been right when he said that the Elite were going to run him ragged. Content just to lay there unmoving, Gohan closed his eyes and allowed himself to doze lightly. He didn’t want to move. He was quite happy to just lay here and enjoy the peace and lack of movement for the night.

Three sharp knocks to his door instantly awoke him and he groaned as he pushed himself to his feet. Opening his door, he came face to face with Mount who had a hard look on his face. Instantly, Gohan started to go through everything that he had done with the twins lately, wondering what he had done to cause the Commander to come to his room.

‘Get dressed, there’s trouble,’ Mount said.

‘Trouble?’

‘There’s a jumper trying to get from realm nine to realm ten.’

Gohan nodded. ‘I’ll meet you at the Portal room.’


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I've had a couple of people asking about why Gohan didn't fight in Super Saiyan during the previous chapter. When I was writing these first few chapters, I had to do a lot of back checking, to make sure that everything matched up, one of those things was making sure that I never said that Gohan went back to his base form. The whole past few chapters Gohan has been in Super Saiyan 2 form, like he was in those days leading up to the Cell Games. I didn't write that he was still in that form because I didn't really think that it needed to be put in, seeing as I never said that he was back to his normal dark haired self. 
> 
> It has been pointed out to me that from a stamina point of view it would be draining and that is one of the things that I have thought about, it will be answered a long with a few other questions that will be answered in this arc of the story.

Dark hair poked over the top of a rock, followed by two dark inquisitive eyes that glittered with repressed laughter. They darted left and right before the rest of the head and body appeared. Gohan pulled himself up onto the Rock and looked down at the ground below him, making sure that the girl and two small boys that were searching for the Dragon Ball weren't closer than he could sense, unless she - like the two boys - was secretly part Saiyan. As far as Gohan was aware there were only three part Saiyans in existence, one of which he had only just learnt of, plus the two full blooded versions he could sense sparring over at capsule corp.

Gripping the Dragon Ball tightly in his hand, he walked towards the pterodactyls nest and carefully set the ball amongst the eggs.

The game of hide and seek the Dragon Balls had not originally been a part of the schedule that he and Trixx were adhering to. When he found out that he and Trixx were being sent to Earth, they made sure that they set aside some time so that Gohan could see his family. When they arrived at the house, Gohan had stayed back, watching from the shadows of a trees as Bulma and his mother chatted outside. 

Bulma hadn't changed much at all, Gohan thought watching the blue haired woman as he laughed at something that Chi-Chi said, more than likely about his father. She had a little more crinkling around the eyes then e last time he had seen her; laughter lines as Sergi would have called them. It was his Mum that had changed the most.

His mum was looking older then he that that she would at her age. All of her hair was drawn back in a bun, making her look older than she was. The only thing that hadn't changed was she was still dressing like a traditional Japanese house wife, only in yellow and orange instead of purple and pink.

If he was honest he would have to say that he preferred the clothes and the way she looked before Cell.

He stood there watching, unsure how to approach when three figures walked out of the house. The first one Gohan guessed was Trunks, in a child version of the man that he had known. Gohan did the math - he would be almost six now. The way he walked and talked was filled with confidence, but Gohan expected nothing less after being raised by Vegeta and Bulma. The girl who was with him was a mystery, she was pretty with dark hair in pigtails and bright blue eyes, and dressed in what Gohan figured was the latest thing for teenagers of Earth to wear; the problem that Gohan had was that he couldn't place her, but his seemed happy to chat with her. The third small figure made Gohan do a double take. He was a miniature version of his Dad, right down to his playful goofy smile. He tore his eyes away from the moment he was witnessing when he heard Trixx moving around behind him.

Trixx studied her best friend as he watched his family. Personality wise, Gohan hadn't change a bit. He was still the fun loving kid that she had met in the gardens that first time, and was just as deadly on the battlefield if not more. It was his appearance that had changed the most, but that was only to be expected. The pre-teen had changed into a handsome young man, his dark hair still standing up in thick spikes (only cut a little shorter) and still wearing the same style uniform that Lani had given him that first day. 

She herself had changed with him, growing taller (though still a good head shorter than Gohan) stronger and faster and almost being able to keep up with Lynial in their hand to hand sessions. She had accepted long ago that she would never be as good as Gohan in battle, but she was handy in other ways, which was why she was with Gohan instead of him being sent on this scouting mission alone. Looking from Gohan, to his family and back again she was tempted to give him the push he needed, literally, but she held back.

'And people thought you looked like your Dad,' Trixx said from beside him.

'Yeah,' Gohan replied.

'So are you going to stand around all day and watch them? Or are going to actually walk over there and say hi?'

Looking from his best friend over to the group once more, Gohan shook his head. 'Let’s go and see if we can locate what Az wants us to find. I'll come back later.'

'Well you've been away for five years, what's a couple more hours?' Trixx said, pushing off the ground and taking off towards the south, narrowly missing being hit by a brown tail in agitation.

With a final look at his family, Gohan pushed off the ground and flew off after his friend, but not before pausing and looking to his left at a green figure who had been watching them from beneath his own shadowy tree. Blinking, Gohan waited to see what would happen before the figure disappeared from his sight. 

_Strange_ , Gohan thought, as he picked up speed to catch up with his friend. 

It didn't take long for the two teens to once again be flying side by side and once they were they began to immediately searching for the energy signature that they were looking for. It was harder than they originally thought it would be, even with the help of Trixx's additional abilities on top of their ki sensing. Az had warned them when they had left that it was possible that whoever they were after wouldn't be as easy to capture as they were making everyone believe. Three hours later Gohan and Trixx were starting to believe that the person that they were looking for was deliberately making this harder than it needed to be.

Landing in a clearing Trixx kicked a rock and sent it flying into a mountain.

'What is with Earth? I thought it would be easy to track an energy signal here. The largest signatures I can feel all belong to people you know,' Trixx said.

'Something or someone is masking it,' Gohan replied. 'A being that is jumping from realm to realms, draining people of their life force should have some kind of a signature, either singularly or as a giant clump.'

'They shouldn't be able to hide it,' Trixx said. 

'But they are.'

'This is more frustrating than the time Sai and Kai decided that we should play multi realm hide and seek,' Trixx said. 'It took us six week to find them and then another six weeks to get off probation with Az and  Mount, not to mention Lani.'

'Those two can be craft when they want to be,' Gohan muttered. 

'I'll say,' Trixx said. 'What do we do? Report back the problem?'

'I-' Gohan began before grabbing the back of her jacket and pulling them up into a tree. 

'What the-' Trixx growled. 

All she got in return was a finger to her lips and two eyes motioning downwards. The two teens looked down as three familiar silhouettes pushed through the bushes.

'Are you sure that it's this way?' the girl with the pigtails asked as she rubbed a place on her arm that had a faint red line on it.  

'Bulma's dragon radar doesn't lie,' Goku's look-a-like grinned. 

 'Yeah, Mum's too good to create something that doesn't work. Besides, it worked the last time they were trying to find them,' Trunk said. 

 'When was that?'

 'Ummmm,' the look-a-like said looking at Trunks. 'When Gohan died.'

 'Oh,' She said.

 'But nothing has happened to it since then. I'm pretty sure that Mum has forgotten about it anyway, she's not going to miss it,' Trunks said. 'It should be over there.'

The look-a-like turned and ran over to where Trunks was pointing, jumping into a bush and returning seconds later with an orange ball with stars decorated on it. The little boy handed it to the girl who look impressed before putting it in the bag slung over her shoulder. It clinked against something. Gohan guessed that it wasn't the first Dragon Ball that they had found. 

'Where's the next one?' 

Trunks studied the radar and turned. 'That way. Not far, about one hundred miles.' 

The girl rolled her eyes at Trunk's comment of one hundred miles not being far. 'Let's go then.'

'NIMBUS!'

'Goten! You don't have to yell!'

'Sorry Videl.'

Trixx and Gohan stayed hidden in their tree until they had disappeared, before falling to the ground beneath them.

'Videl and Goten,' Trixx said. 'Do you know who she is?'

Gohan shook his head. 'Nope. Never seen her before. Goten is a surprise.'

'He is? I thought your parents were always planning on giving you a sibling. At least that is what you told me.'

'That's not it,' Gohan explained. 'Before all this stuff started, before Raditz came, I told Mum and Dad that I wanted a brother.'

'So? What is surprising about that?' Trixx asked. 

'I told them I wanted a brother and his name was going to be Goten.'

'That is a surprise,' Trixx said. 'What’s with the look?'

'What look?' 

'The look on your face,' Trixx said. 'It's the same one that you get when you're going to prank Sai, Kai or Zean.' 

'Well I was thinking.'

'About?'

'What kind of brother would I be if I didn't play hide and seek with my brother?'

Trixx smiled. 'What do you have planned?' 

'Can you hone in on the dragon ball that they are after?' 

Trixx was able to find the dragon ball Easily and with a little help of Instant Transmission, the both of them were able to get their hands on the dragon ball easily. Giggling, the duo began the game. They would find a dragon ball before the other three and a game of cat and mouse would begin, ending with Gohan and Trixx hiding the ball and waiting close nearby to get the direction of the next dragon ball before starting the game all over again. The game was entertaining for Gohan and Trixx, not so much for Videl, Goten and Trunks, who began to get frustrated by the third ball in the game. By the final ball, Trunks looked as mad as Vegeta had been when Gohan had surpassed him. 

 Straitening up, he turned and looked at Trixx who was hovering just above him.

'Well that’s the last of them. Do you want to hang around and see what they wish for?' Trixx asked. 

 'No, we better get back to what we're supposed to be doing. We'll probably find out later on anyway,' Gohan said. 

 'It will be a great way for you to introduce yourself to them at the big reunion,' Trixx said, the two of them taking off into the sky once more. 

 The nest stayed untouched for a good half hour before three tuffs of black hair appeared over the top of the rock, followed by the top of a head and a pair of dark, joy filled eyes. They glanced side to side, in a similar manor as Gohan's had, seeking out anyone who might stop them obtaining what they were after before brightening. The rest of the head and the small four year old body of Goten Son followed as the young child climbed up on top of the rock and started to balance his way towards the nest that he was after. Standing on his tip toes and looking inside, Goten counted the eggs one by one, only stopping when his eyes hit the orange glow that accompanied a dragon ball. With a wide grin, the young boy reached into the next and plucked the yellow-orange sphere out of the nest and darted back to the edge of the rock in case the Mama Pterodactyl was close by. 

Looking down, the four-year-old started to wave the hand that was holding the dragon ball above his head before shouting down to the two people that he could see below. 

'Trunks! Videl! I found it!' 

Trunks Briefs and Videl Satan looked with two very different expressions on their faces. Trunks' face went from serious to grinning in seconds as he looked up at his younger best friend, while Videl looked a mixture of shock and worry. 

'Goten! What are you doing up here?' 

'You two were too busy fighting over who was going to come up here, so I beat you to it,' the grinning pre-schooler replied. 'Here I come!'

With a jump, Goten pushed off from the rock, narrowly missing the swoop of a territorial pterodactyl mother and landed with a bump on the ground below, the grin still on his face. Passing the sphere to Videl, Goten turned to Trunks. 

'There's a whole nest of eggs up there. We need to come back here in a month and see the babies when they hatch,' Goten said.

'It'll have to be on a weekend, I go back to school in a week,' Trunks replied, his nose screwing up at the thought. 

'Oh yeah,' Goten said. 'I forgot about that.'

'You would,' Trunk said. 

'I hate it when you do things like that Goten,' Videl sighed as she put the dragon ball into a bag with the others that they had collected. 

'Why? It's not like he's going to get hurt,' Trunks said.

'Yeah Videl, it takes a lot more than a jump from up there to hurt me,' Goten said, his face completely serious. 

Videl looked at the two boys. Outwardly they looked like normal little boys, if a little more hyperactive than normal with a greater interest in martial arts then many would consider normal.  _But they aren’t normal little boys_ , Videl reminded herself for the hundredth time in the year since meeting both Goten, Trunks and their families.

Meeting them had been a complete and utter coincidence. She had gone with her school on a weeklong camping trip only to get lost in the forest during free time. As the hours passed Videl started to wonder if  she was ever going to meet up with her classmates again, when she bumped into Goten on his way home, carrying a log that was easily twenty times his length. When he had seen her he had instantly dropped the log, not to make it look like he hadn’t been carrying it, but to walk over to her and find out what she was doing so far into the forest. His eyes got wide when she discovered that she was lost and before she could protest he had grabbed a hold of her hand and started to pull her in the direction that he had been heading in.

‘I don’t know where your school has camped, but Mum or Daddy will, they’ve lived here longer than I have,’ Goten explained. ‘If anyone can help you it’ll be them.’

Goten’s Mum, Chi-Chi, had been hanging up laundry when they exited the forest and had made her feel right at home as she explained what had happened and how she had come across Goten, while the young boy went out to find his father. She was halfway through her tea when Goku walked through the door, a happily chatting Goten on his shoulder, and followed by Trunks and a disgruntled Vegeta.

With Goku’s help, she found the camp ground where she was staying and reunited with her friends Sharpner and Erasa, but before she could thank the smiling man he had disappeared.

A week later, after returning home, she searched out the house that Goten had taken her to with the help of her father’s driver. Goten had been playing in the front garden alone when they had landed and his face had instantly lit up when he had seen her and what she carried as a thankyou gift for the whole family for their help. Goten had instantly dragged her down to play with him and his imaginary friend, Gohan. She could only be dragged away when Chi-Chi came out to get him so they could go to Trunks’ house and when Videl had to leave. But she didn’t leave without promising to come and visit again. 

Weeks passed and Videl made sure to come and visit the small boy and play with him and his friend Trunks. Befriending the family was easier than anything that she had ever accomplished before and she soon came to see the Son house as a second home, one that wasn’t filled with boasting fathers. The closer she got to the Son family the more she discovered that they weren’t as normal as she had thought, and she hadn’t been seeing things the day that she had first met Goten.

The whole idea of the last of an alien race living on earth seemed like the plot for some crazy TV show, and yet as Goku showed her everything that he could do bit by bit, she discovered that everything that she had thought about Cell and his abilities being tricks was all a lie. Her father had managed to cover up that there were some seriously powerful people living on earth.

‘Aren’t you mad that my Dad is saying that you’re all tricksters?’ Videl asked Goku one day as he cut fire wood. Goku just turned and smiled at her.

‘No,’ Goku said. ‘I had a hard enough time dealing with people who kept recognising me after I won the World Martial Arts tournament and even before then. Diehard fans have a way of finding you in the weirdest places. Your Dad actually did me and my friends a favour and kept us out of the public eye so we can continue to live normal lives.’

‘But if Cell could do all those things like you can, that means that he was really powerful, right?’ Videl asked, stacking the wood against the house.

‘One of the most powerful beings that I have ever fought against,’ Goku said, cutting through a log. Videl didn’t blink an eye at that admission. She had confronted Goku months before about his part in the Cell games, but had still yet to get the full story out of him.

‘So it wasn’t my Dad who defeated him,’ Videl said.

Videl looked over at the tall man as the sound of him ripping a log in half echoed between them.

‘No. It wasn’t your Dad.’

The way Goku said it told Videl all she needed to know. The subject was closed for now. 

It didn’t take long however to notice the slight sadness that hovered over the house during certain times, especially three days before the anniversary of Cell’s defeat and the actual day of the anniversary. It had  taken some courage to ask Bulma during a visit what was happening.

‘Goten isn’t Goku and Chi-Chi’s only child. Goten has – had – an older brother who died,’ Bulma said, choosing her words carefully. Videl put two and two together pretty quickly.

‘He died on the day Cell was defeated, right?’ 

‘Yeah,’ Bulma said. ‘Gohan was a really sweet kid and he didn’t deserve to die at the hands of that monster.’

 ‘I thought that everyone who was killed by Cell came back,’ Videl said, feeling confused.

 ‘Everyone except Gohan it seems,’ Bulma said.

 ‘How? Why?’

 'That is the great mystery and when I die I intend to find out why he wasn’t sent home to Chi-Chi and Goku,’ Bulma explained.

 ‘He must have been held back for some reason.’

 ‘No reason is good enough to stop and eleven year old from living the rest of his life with his family,’ Bulma replied and Videl couldn’t help but agree.

 ‘Does Goten know?’

 ‘Yeah, why do you think his imaginary friend Gohan is named Gohan?’ Bulma smiled. ‘And why he suddenly disappears whenever Chi-Chi and Goku enter the room when he is playing?’

 ‘Did they get upset about it?’

 ‘No, as far as I know they don’t even know of Gohan’s imaginary existence,’ Bulma said. ‘I only know about it because Trunks told me when the two of them got into a fight over it. I think that despite how young Goten is, he knows that while his parents love him with all their might, they miss Gohan a lot as well. Talking about him is fine, but he doesn’t want to do something that is going to make them sad any more than two days of the year. So the imaginary Gohan disappears.’

 A year later and still Gohan was disappearing whenever Chi-Chi and Goku came into the room. Trunks understood a lot better now and it had actually been his idea to get Goten out of the house today so that Chi-Chi and Goku could grieve for their son in private who would have been sixteen today.

 Videl had wondered what the sixteen year old Gohan would have looked like if he was still alive. She even wondered if they would have become friends like she had with Goten. But those thoughts were always kept to herself.

 ‘Come on, we better start heading back to Capsule Corp,’ Videl said. ‘Your Mum is going to start wondering where we are if we’re out here much longer.’

 ‘And where her dragon radar disappeared to,’ Trunks said.

 ‘Exactly,’ Videl said.

 ‘Do you think that Bulma will have lunch ready when we get there? I’m hungry,’ Goten said, rubbing his stomach.

 ‘She always does around this time, doesn’t she?’ Videl said.

 ‘Nope,’ Trunks said. ‘Mum’s been so busy with this new invention that she hasn’t been doing the cooking lately, Grandma has. Which is better because she always makes desert.’

 ‘What do you think she’ll make this time?’ Goten asked, his eyes wide with excitement.

 ‘She said something about chocolate chip, peanut butter cookies before we left,’ Trunks said.

 ‘Yum!’ Goten said and Videl nodded in agreement. ‘Let’s get back then! NIMBUS!’

 'Goten! Yelling!'

 'Sorry Videl,' Goten said, grinning and rubbing the back of his head. 

 The Nimbus cloud flew down from the sky and stopped in front of the three of them, looking excited that it was once again being used for an adventure. The two small boys and teen climbed on top of the Nimbus and took off into the sky, Trunks grumbling about  _actually knowing how to fly, unlike Goten_  . 

 As the Nimbus levelled out, Videl called for it to stop moving as she spotted something growing in the distance. Large and mushroom shaped, the cloud rose high above the mountains reminding Videl of the documentaries she had seen on Volcanoes in school. Trunks was looking at the cloud unimpressed, arms crossed across his chest, and wincing as Goten accidently stood on his hand. 

 'What's going on?' Goten asked. 

 'I don't know,' Videl said.

 'Do you think a volcano exploded?' Goten asked. 

 'Erupted,' Trunks said. 'Volcanoes don't explode, they erupt.'

 'Do you think a volcano   _erupted_?' 

 'I don't remember hearing anything about one possibly erupting,' Videl said. 'Or anything else like that for that matter.'

 'What do you think it is then?' Goten asked.

 'Who cares,' Trunks said. 'Let’s go find out.'

 'Boys, no!'

 Videl's protests fell on the deaf ears of two small children, who instantly directed the Nimbus to fly towards the large mushroom cloud of smoke.

 An hours flight away, Trixx was the first to notice the change in energy. Turning in the direction that she felt it coming from, the dark green haired girl watched as the mushroom cloud billowed out over the sky. Gohan hovered next to her, arms crossed and a frown appearing on his face. 

 'You think that was caused by the guy we're looking for?' 

 'No,' Gohan said. 'That isn't the guy.'

 'How can you be so sure?' Trixx asked. 

 'Because the energy that I can sense over there, I've felt before. Just before the Cell games,' Gohan said. 

 'Are you going to enlighten me?' Trixx asked. 

 'Remember when I told you about Paragus and his son?' Gohan asked. 

 'Yeah, the crazy man and his equally crazy super super saiyan son,' Trixx said. 

 'Well the energy that I'm sensing from over there is definitely one of them,' Gohan said. 'What the hell are they doing?'

 Trixx frowned and then looked at Gohan in surprise. 'They're seriously not doing what I think they're doing are they?'

 'I don't think so, I know so,' Gohan said. 'They're my brother and Vegeta's son, of course they're going to go towards the danger and bring someone with them.'

 'The girl?'

 'Yes.'

 'For fucks sake,' Trixx said. 

 The two of them didn't need to even think about it before abandoning what they were doing and flying towards the large mushroom cloud, hoping that they would get there before anything too bad happened.


End file.
